Children have a curiosity about words and letters and a drive to imitate what they see going on around them, so it is important to capitalise on that in a relaxed way when thinking about learning to read and write. Children are learning about reading and writing all the time by watching how the people that matter to them use written language. When you go into the street, notice how much writing there is on road signs, posters, shops, buses, as well as clothes. Context helps us recognise words and children come to connect and remember them. Pointing out familiar words in context will help children understand their meaning and make connections between the written symbols and what they stand for. Children come to recognise familiar words and captions on screen too and reading these together will help when they come to read in a more conventional sense.
There is evidence to show that understanding when and why we read and write is as important for young children’s literacy development as knowing how to do it. They will want to join in when they see important people in their lives read and write as part of everyday experience. For example, they will be curious if they see you writing a shopping list, sending a text message or sitting at the computer, and they will want to join in, so it’s important to talk about it. Showing them how to read to find out when Charlie and Lola is on TV next or how to get information about a recipe from a magazine or the internet will help them understand the value and purposes of reading and writing so they learn to use them for themselves in this way.
Writing down a story or message that children dictate will help them understand the link between what they say and the words on the page and will help them when they become more independent writers. Some parents write their children’s stories into folded paper books that can be illustrated and then read back as a story at bedtime.
Young children’s first marks and scribbles are an important part of their development. Giving praise and taking an interest in what they are doing will encourage them. Children as young as two can draw letter-like shapes which show that they are already taking in lots of information about written language. Children often show pride in ‘their’ name or letter. With encouragement, they often want to point out familiar words or letters. Magnetic alphabet letters or bricks can be a fun way of getting to know the letters of the alphabet and how they fit together to make familiar words, or there are numerous games and activities to be found online. Whatever you choose, it’s the talk that surrounds it that’s important, taking the lead from the child in a relaxed atmosphere.
Writing and talking about their own name and those of family members and friends is often a source of interest to children once they begin to see the link between the letters on the page and people and things that matter to them. Names also help them build on this understanding of the patterns of written language and understand that writing is consistent – the letters in their name will always be the same and appear in the same order. Names also demonstrate the symbolic nature of written language. They show that those letters, in that order, stand for and conjure up that person and everything about them, the way they look and sound, what they do and who they are.
