As the mom of an almost-four-year-old, part of my parenting strategy is that I—like 91% of parents—read aloud to my daughter every day, to find real-world literacy moments (like reading signs outside, which she loves), to talk about everything, and and to share my own joy of reading.
My daughter doesn't know how to read (but she wants to!), and she has long since mastered the alphabet. She has phonemic awareness (the awareness of sounds) and likes to try to sound out words. All of these are things that—as a mom whose business is education and literacy—I mentally check off as indicators that tell me things are generally progressing in the right direction.
But there are also funny little moments that come up that strike me as preliteracy signs to pay attention to, seize as learning opportunities and, to be honest, have fun with! Below are some of the things she does lately that are great opportunities to have fun with letters, words and language.
Cheerleader-style imaginary spelling:
She understands that words are formed with letters. She is in the process of learning that these letters must be arranged in a certain order. What she doesn't yet get is that not all letters spell words. So lately she has taken to shouting out things like, "Gimmie an A! Gimmie an X! Gimme an M! Gimmie a P! What's that spell, mama?"
And, well, it doesn't spell anything! Sometimes to be silly, I pronounce whatever she has spelled as best as I can. (Every so often, she spells a word by accident.) But I do like to encourage this game because I think it helps her get comfortable with the concept of spelling in a relaxed setting, before the stakes are higher at school.
Pretend writing:
One of her favorite books has a space for her to write her name, which she wanted to do last night. I said cheerfully, "Maybe let's write it together!" and she said "NO. I WANT TO DO IT." (If you have spent time with a toddler, you'll recognize this all-caps manner of speaking.) I gave her a pen, curious to see what she'd do. She hunkered down and very carefully drew the small marks you see above, and was satisfied. "There." (Later on, she did a little scribbling, too, which you can also see.) She obviously can't write, but she felt good about her work, so I decided not to write anything myself. I decided that her experience was important (and we all know whose book it is).
Connecting pictures and text:
Part of learning to read is making connections between words and pictures, which is why I like reading books that have clear relationships between text and image. I love looking at these pages with her, because she will say "two cats smiling, three pigs crying," and so on. She can't read the words, but she knows the numbers, and understands that the words describe exactly what's in the pictures. She takes great pleasure and pride in working her way through this spread.
So these are some of the things we're doing these days. I am sure they will change in a few months. These moments teach me to pay attention to where pre-literacy moments happen, and to remember that they can happen anytime, anywhere. And if they seem silly, okay! What's important to me is that she can have some fun (reading is fun!) and feel good about her progress.
Tell me, what fun things is your toddler doing? (And if you want to learn a little more about preliteracy in babies and toddlers, check out this article.)
