Tips on Fostering Childrens Early Literacy and

Language Skills

Providing your child with a fun and supportive learning environment at the
start of his classes will help to secure a fundamental love of learning. By
exposing your child to educational skills at home, your child will carry his
newly found knowledge and motivation to the classroom. Literacy
exercises worked on at home can be a fun experience for you and a
lifelong lesson for your child.

Go Beyond the Alphabet Song

Your child will go home from his center knowing the
alphabet song. They can also benefit from learning to
identify each letter and recognize letter sounds. Help your
child develop a more meaningful and rich understanding
of letters by emphasizing what each letter looks like,
sounds like, and showing letters forming words. Buy him
letter tiles or letter flashcards and have him practice
writing these letters and saying the sounds they make.

Write out the alphabet on a large piece of paper. Then, have fun starting each day with a
different Letter of the Day! Begin with the letter A by circling it, describing the way it
looks and repeating the letter sound. Go on a Letter Hunt throughout the day and search
for things that begin with the Letter of the Day. For example, encourage your child to
look for as many B foods as possible while youre at the supermarket. Remember to
emphasize the initial letter sound: BBBananas! BBBeans! Your child can also look
for the Letter of the Day in books, magazines, or different rooms of the house!
A
Z
B
B B

Explore Letters and Words Everywhere

Letters and words are
everywhere! Just be on the
lookout throughout the day.

While eating in a restaurant with a bilingual menu, point out words and letters
that your child might know.

Write your shopping list in English --- or at least the words you yourself can
write and say. Involve your child in the process to show that there is a real-life
use for English.

Use Words, Words, and More Words!

Have fun playing with words and language with your child! For example, play a rhyming
game together by listing words that rhyme with ball. You can say, ball, fall, wall,
small crayon! Recognizing this silly mistake can be a very funny and exciting activity
for your child. Allow them to correct you and then think of a word that does rhyme with
ball!
ball ball,
fall, wall, small crayon!

Allow your child to hear you use words repeatedly in many meaningful ways. This can
help him understand and remember new words and what they mean. For example, if
youre introducing the word supermarket they need to hear the word supermarket,
what it means, and the word used in various supermarkets.

Learning new words is more effective when you build on words your child already
knows. For example, after seeing the word STORE outside, talk about what a store is:
Its a place where you can go to buy something. Then, with your child, explore other
kinds of stores are in the neighborhood (e.g. hardware store, food store, shoe store, toy
store, book store, etc).
store

There are so many wonderful words to learn and exploring words through categories
makes it easy! Categories provide a way to link words together. For example, when
investigating the word, transportation, you can explore all the exciting words in this
category - cars, buses, planes, trains, trucks, bikes and boats! When you link words to
categories your child will learn that all these things have something in common. They
are all used to help people get from one place to another! Other child-friendly
categories include jobs, animals, family, food, containers, and clothing.

General Tips
Set a specific quiet time every day for listening to the audio track. Involve your child
in setting the rule for this listening time.

Talk about school every day and ask your child to sometimes teach you whatever he or
she learned that day. Your child will get the message that you think learning is
important.

Make sure your child is learning that English has real-world applications. When
practicing with your child, give instructions he can act on. For example. Bring me that
bag, Run here.

:Bring me that bag, Run here.()
Print up the word wall template. Every week ask your child what words sound good to
him. Write it up with the help of your child and put it on the wall. Watch the list grow
over the months but remember to periodically review them.