Continuum of Typical Early Literacy Development and Experiences INFANTS 0-6 months Typical Development of Early Literacy Abilities Experiences to Promote Early Literacy Learning Spoken to in a warm, caring, responsive, manner Oral language: Cooing with vowel sounds; babbling or playing with her own voice with sounds that don t sound much like speech; imitate some sounds and mouth movements Listening comprehension: At birth, tuning in to speech by turning head, moving; Respond to peek-a-boo games Phonological awareness: Respond differently to familiar vs. unfamiliar voices and sounds Alphabet Knowledge: Infants can visually discriminate between a few letter shapes, but this may not be evident to adults Spoken to while having needs met, interpreting what is happening during a diaper change, a feeding Hear parentese or baby talk, since it gets and holds attention better Repetition of familiar words, including names and object labels Interact with and explore books with adults 6-12 months Oral language: Babbling with consonant-vowel combinations (e.g., bababa, dadada); learns about turn-taking and will start to wait for adult to finish speaking before vocalizing Listening comprehension: Recognize sound of own name and names of familiar objects and people; understands everyday phrases like bye-bye Participate in conversations in which adults respond to and build on verbalizations Hear imitations of sounds in a conversational way Hear spoken language, with special features like varied vocabulary and rhyme
Phonological awareness: Beginning to specialize in recognizing and producing sounds of own language Written Language: grasp objects at birth; understand that moving hand and arm causes things to happen Print Awareness: Understand what books are for, orient a book correctly with experience Text Comprehension: understand that books contain stories and associate them with pleasant bookreading experiences Play with sound through babbling and talking Participate in book reading experiences with caring, familiar adults who talks about pictures Experiment with a variety of sensory materials Develop fine motor skills through play with writing and art materials Observe adults writing Play with alphabet toys and books 12-18 months Oral language: first words for familiar objects/people; will imitate spoken words; speech-like Hear alphabet songs and books Have pleasurable experiences with books and print babbling continues with inflection Listening comprehension: understand 50 words; can follow simple one-step instructions (point to the truck; pick up your bear) Phonological awareness: responds to and participates in singing and rhyming games and distinguishes between these activities and ordinary speech Written language: Grasp crayons and apply them to paper
18-24 months Typical Development of Early Literacy Abilities TODDLERS Experiences to Promote Early Literacy Learning Participate in book reading with adults Oral language: 50-words expressive vocabulary, mostly nouns and names; 2-word utterances begin; Vocabulary spurt begins, learning 10-20 new words per week Listening comprehension: understand around 300 words; understand directional cues (under the table, on the bed, in the box); points to pictures in a book (e.g., when asked, Where is the balloon? ) Phonological awareness: Begins to recognize rhyming words and can repeat short rhymes, sing songs and fingerplays Engage in interesting, relevant, and challenging conversations (new words, complex sentences) Repeatedly hear familiar books/stories so child can recognize patterns and learn to predict what comes next Play listening games with sounds and words Participate in fingerplays, games, and singing with caring adults Play sound, rhyming, and word games 24-36 months Oral language: Can create 3-5 word sentences, use plurals, and ask short questions; around 1,000 words expressive vocabulary Listening comprehension: can follow 2-step instructions (get your book and put it in the bag) Phonological awareness: Recite simple rhymes Alphabet Knowledge: Recognize first letter in name Print Awareness: Follow text on a page from left to right with a finger with experience Written Language: Begin to make drawings that represent things and people Independently explore and read books and other written materials in play Have adults point out environmental print Observe adults reading and writing Explore a variety of art and writing materials and interpret their work for others Observe adults writing Opportunities to write messages, stories, name
Text Comprehension: Can predict, recall, and act out events in favorite stories from books; recognize and understand some familiar environmental print Adults interpret attempted writing Play with alphabet toys and books See letters in the environment Get adult support in finding and identifying letters Have adults make connections between environmental print and objects and events
3-4 years Typical Development of Early Literacy Abilities PRESCHOOLERS Experiences to Promote Early Literacy Learning Engage in interesting, relevant, challenging Oral language: Vocabulary of 1,200-2,000 words; varied vocabulary with nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs; uses language to create make-believe play scenarios Listening comprehension: understand/answer who-what-where-when questions Phonological awareness: Identify rhymes; notice same and different letter sounds Written language: text-like and letter-like shapes in artwork conversation with varied vocabulary and increasingly complex sentences Play listening games like Simon Says Invent and tell new stories and retell familiar stories Participate in shared book reading with adults Act out stories from books, movies, or that were made 4-5 years Oral language: Can tell a story about something that happened Listening comprehension: can retell a story from a book that was read to him or her or a movie s/he saw Phonological awareness: can isolate initial letter sounds like buh in bat and n in nap Alphabet knowledge: recognize and name a few letters in own name Print awareness: recognize and read familiar printed words, such as own name, Cheerios Written language: can form some recognizable letters, especially those in name Text comprehension: can recognize an isolated, printed, familiar word up Play sound games with letter-sounds and rhyme Practice invented spelling: Spell or write like it sounds Make up songs and rhymes Independently explore and read books Purposefully use print in the environment, such as a cookbook in a play or real kitchen Observe adults reading and writing Dictate stories for adults to write
5-6 years Oral language: Grammar advances such as verb tense and possessives; 8,000-14,000 word expressive vocabularies; Speech should be intelligible to non-family members and socially appropriate/useful Listening comprehension: Can remember more about what was learned from a book or conversation and apply it in new contexts Phonological awareness: can isolate ending sounds, like puh in cap, and differentiate between multiple sounds in a 1-syllable word, e.g., c-a-p Alphabet knowledge: recite alphabet; know letters of first letters of familiar words Written language: can print name Text comprehension: can recognize own name and other familiar words in strings of text Participate in making books about favorite topics Explore a variety of art and writing materials and interpret their work for others Get adult help with writing projects Get exposure to different texts for different purposes (e.g., books, cookbooks, text on a computer, handwritten lists and notes, magazines, newspapers, flyers, brochures) Play with alphabet toys and books See letters in the environment Have adult support in finding and identifying letters and letter sounds Play letter-sound correspondence games Adult encouragement to decode environmental print Adult support to decode printed words Encouragement to read back stories or drawings