8 Tips to Promote Early Literacy

by Early Childhood Director, Elana Helfgott

Below are some tips to promote early literacy:

1. Make “talk” part of your everyday life. Young children should hear 30,000 words per day. While this may sound like a lot of words, this correlates into a parent speaking to a child in full and descriptive sentences daily.

2. Read signs, labels and road maps out loud.

3. Share a lot of books, stories and finger play.

4. Allow children to choose books they are interested in. A weekly library trip is a great way to promote this.

5. Reading a favorite book over and over again is a wonderful idea. Children learn from repetition.

6. Use different voices and sound effects to keep the stories exciting.

7. Stop in the middle of a story to ask key questions. “What” and “why” prediction questions are a great way for children to learn and stay engaged in the story.

8. Focus on the illustrations. Comment and talk about how they correlate to the story.