Rutland Free Library

 
Six Early Literacy Skills

Children need a variety of skills in order to become successful readers. Parents who talk with their children, read books and magazines with them, and encourage play activities that involve language, prepare their children to learn to read when they start school. The National Research Council recommends that children enter school with six “early literacy skills” that serve as the foundation for learning to read and write. Children who enter school with these skills are better able to benefit from the reading instruction they receive when they arrive at school.

Vocabulary
Knowing the names of things.

Print Motivation
A child’s interest in and enjoyment of books.

Print Awareness
Noticing print everywhere; knowing how to handle a book; knowing how we follow the words on a page.

Narrative Skills
The ability to describe things and events and tell stories.

Letter Knowledge
Knowing that letters have names and are different from each other, and that specific sounds go with specific letters.

Phonological Awareness
The ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.

The information presented here is from the Every Child Ready to Read @ your library ® early literacy project of the Public Library Association (PLA) and the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), in partnership with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a division of the National Institutes of Health. PLA and ALSC are divisions of the American Library Association.

© copyright 2004 — PLA/ALSC, divisions of the American Library Association 50 E. Huron, Chicago , IL 60611