Language and Literacy

Although language and literacy are two different skills, they are closely related. Language is the ability to both use and understand spoken words or signs. It is all about ideas passing from one person to another. Literacy is the ability to use and understand written words or other symbols in order to communicate. Language and literacy learning begins prenatally. The child learns the sounds and rhythms of his or her home language in the womb and can develop a love of reading by being read to as a newborn. The ELOF provides a detailed progression of the knowledge and skills a child achieves in these domains.

Language is a system of sounds, gestures, and expressions that people use to communicate with each other. Receptive language is the term for the skills of understanding language, including expressions and gestures. Expressive language includes communication from the child meant to elicit a response from someone else.

The use of meaningful language with a child throughout the first five years is critical for the child's ability to become proficient in language usage throughout their school years.

Emergent literacy has been defined as "those behaviors shown by very young children as they begin to respond to and approximate reading and writing acts."

There are many ways for infants and toddlers to engage with books:

• Holding, tasting, and turning the pages
• Having an adult hold the child while reading a book
• Pointing to and talking about the pictures
• Inviting the child to finish or join in to repetitive phrases
• Asking questions

Near the end of the first year of life, children begin to understand that pictures represent real objects and know the meaning of about 50 words. By 18 months, the child knows 1,800 words and is rapidly learning new words every day, given exposure to rich language and literacy experiences.

Daily reading to a child, beginning with telling little nursery rhymes from birth, significantly improves a child's ability to read and write.

How To

You can support a family's facilitation of their child's language and literacy by encouraging families to:

• Talk to their child even before birth
  • Long before they can expect their child to understand their words, the child will begin to sense the rhythm of conversation and the hear the sounds of the home language
• Describe the child's actions, feelings, and surroundings (e.g., "You are running so fast! I can see you breathing hard. But what a big smile; it looks like you're having fun.")
• Listen patiently and with encouragement to what the child is trying to communicate; for example, "Oh, you played with Sonia. What did you do?"
• Ask the preschool child open-ended questions and try to extend a conversation. For example, if the child is playing with dolls, the parent might say:
  • "So, you're the mommy. Tell me about your family."
  • "I see you're cooking some food for your baby. What are you making? How do you cook that? What are your baby's favorite foods?"
• Elaborate with their language as their child's understanding increases. For example:
  • With a 1-year-old, they might just name an object: "Mmmmm, carrots."
  • With a 5-year-old, they could elaborate about the meal: "We're having your favorite tonight. Tacos! Here are some corn tortillas. The chicken is just a little spicy. I cooked onions to go with this. That's not what we usually have, but I read the recipe and it looked good. How do you want to build your taco?"
• Interact with books and pictures with the child as soon as he or she can focus on a picture
• Make daily reading a regular part of your routine
• Ask the child questions about the book, such as
  • "Where is the baby's nose?"
  • "How do you think Little Bear feels? Look at his face."
  • "What do you think will happen next?"
• Tell stories and have their children to tell stories
• Talk with their child about things that happened recently or will be happening soon

Experience It

Watch a short video of a mother dressing a very young baby after changing her diaper. She talks to and smiles at the baby, and the baby is very responsive visually and verbally.

Last Updated: January 21, 2025