Children develop key early literacy skills during the first five years of life. These skills prepare them to learn and succeed. Below are examples of specific areas of literacy and suggestion for helping children with these skills.

  • Narrative skills – parents can model how to tell a story reading a picture book—the child will eventually learn how to tell stories by looking at the pictures.
  • How to Tell a Story

  • Letter knowledge – parents can help their child begin to learn about letters of the alphabet by pointing out the names of different letters in an alphabet book.
  • Vocabulary – parents can use picture books with their child to point out the names of things they come in contact with every day: fruits, vegetables, cars, dogs, etc.
  • Phonological awareness– parents can read books to their child to help them learn different sounds, like a cow mooing or a dog barking by reading books with Singing songs and saying rhymes also help the child learn new sounds.
  • Print motivation – parents should discover what interests their child and then choose books with similar themes that they both can enjoy together. Choose books that are interactive and get the child involved.
  • Print awareness – parents should demonstrate to their child how to hold and care for a book and how to turn the pages.

The raising readers Book Committee works hard to offer a variety of beautifully illustrated picture books, which focus on sounds, colors, images, letters and numbers, the building blocks of early literacy. See below for additional books that you can recommend to parents to help them understand the fundamentals of early literacy.

Resources to Recommend to parents:

(provided by Vicky Smith, Director of the McArthur Library in Biddeford, Maine and Raising Reader Book Committee Member)
Raising Readers | P.O. Box 17826 | Portland, Maine 04112 | Phone: 1-800-397-3263
Libra Foundation