October 27, 2025 • 14 mins
Research Associates and Developmental Therapist Kayla O'Neill talks to Research Associate, Developmental Therapist, and former preschool teacher Lynne Hall about different was to enhance reading and language development in toddlers, the pre-reading and writing stages for ages two to four.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Welcome to the EarlyChildhood On The Go
podcast. I'm your host,Kayla O'Neill, and
today we're exploringliteracy development
in toddlers, the pre-reading and writing
stages for ages two tofour. And with me is
my friend and colleague,Lynn Hall. She's
a research associateat the Early Childhood
Center. Lynn, so gladthat you're here.
Thanks, Kayla.
I love the pre-readingand writing stage.
(00:30):
Toddlers are socurious, and everything
they do lays theirgroundwork for
learning and readingand writing. All
right, so let's startbig. What shifts
as kids move fromthat emergent stage
into this pre-readingand writing phase?
Well, from birth totwo, kids are mostly
(00:51):
babbling, pointingat pictures, and
recognizing voices. Bytwo to four, things look
a lot different.
They start enjoyingstorybooks and even
love talking about them.
So they're kind areready to dive into
the books. Yeah,exactly. They learn to
handle books,turning the pages one
at a time. They mighteven read by retelling
(01:13):
the story using pictures. That'sso cute. Do they
recognize symbols yet?
Yeah, they'll startto notice logos,
stop signs, evenlabels on packages,
you know, for thosefavorite foods and
things. They'llhold the books right
side up and they'llpretend to read to
their toys. All of thatis print awareness.
(01:33):
What about languageat this stage?
Language during thisstage really takes
off. Children movefrom single words into
full phrases and evensimple sentences.
They can start torecognize and even
generate some rhymes,and some of the children
even get excitedabout naming letters.
(01:54):
So at two to threeyears old, they're
already gettinginto the letters?
Yeah, sometimes. Anda few of them are
even trying to writetheir name, usually
just with scribbles,but understanding
that those scribblesmean something. They
matter. They'resymbols of their ideas.
Meanwhile, their brain isstill pruning those
(02:14):
unused pathwaysand strengthening the ones they
use the most.
So the brain isbecoming more efficient
for language andliteracy. How can parents
encourage thisengagement with print?
One of the primarythings families can do is
surround their childrenwith books and print
in their daily life.
We talked about thisa little bit in our
(02:36):
last podcast, puttingthose books where they
can reach them. Wetalked about having
them in the family room,reading during bath
time, even putting somein the car, right?
And possibly labelingobjects around the house,
even signs and magazinescount. How about just
reading out loud?
Reading aloud is essential.
(02:57):
Reading aloud every day.
Choose books thatare patterned and
predictable with thestories. And kids just
love to chime in kindof when they know
what's going to happennext. And then point
to the words as you'rereading, underline
sentences with yourfinger, talk about
the author, the title,and the pictures.
(03:18):
So it's not justabout reading to them, it's more
reading with them.
That's really well put, Kayla.
It's that interaction,it's enjoying books and reading
together, making it aninteractive experience.
Asking things like, what do youthink will happen next?
invites children toguess or finish a
(03:39):
phrase and thisbuilds comprehension
and confidenceespecially when we're
talking about abook we've looked at
a few times howabout writing skills
so we want to give ourtoddlers crayons and
paper and rememberingthat they're still
building their smallmuscles and a lot of
times when they're drawingthey're going to be
(03:59):
using their wholearm so if we can give
them big paper so theycan make those larger
movements and reallyenjoy the writing process
all of this scribblingis going to lead
to them eventuallymaking shapes and then
letters it's realpractice for expressing
their ideas and buildingthe motor skills they
(04:20):
need to write letterslater shared reading
and scribbling togetherbuild children's
phonological skillsand their vocabulary at
this stage so I thinkone thing that's on
everybody's mind. Andlike when I think about
reading from when Iwas a kid to reading
now is the jump intechnology that we've had.
We have digital booksnow, audio books.
(04:41):
Can these help and howdo parents use them?
I'd say it's allabout moderation. And
for this age, especiallyprint is better.
Screens can bereally distracting
and printed booksinvite more of a
conversation andinteraction with the
adult in their livesthan when we're
looking at somethingon a screen.
(05:02):
Got it. So let'stalk about play.
How does playconnect to literacy?
Well, play isreally the gateway.
You want to be ableto set up a library
corner with booksand stuffed animals.
Kids love pretendingto read. And during my
years as a preschoolteacher, we used to talk
about that there'smore than one way to
(05:23):
read a book. So readingthe words is one way
to read a book. butlooking at the pictures
and talking about thepictures is another way
to read a book andthen as our kids got a
little bit older inpreschool we used to play
this game calledletter detectives where
they'd have a littlemagnifying glass and and
look for differentletters in the book which
you can do the samething with vocabulary
(05:45):
words looking for differentpictures so helping
children understandthat reading those
words that they'll dolater is just one way
to read a book, butthey're already readers.
I love that idea ofmagnifying glass. That
is so fun. How aboutlike rhyming games?
Rhyming games areperfect. So clapping the
syllables and wordswhile you're playing with
(06:07):
maybe some blocks orsomething or singing
rhyming songs. It's soplayful and it really
supports these youngearly readers and writers
phonemic awarenessskills. Any sensory play
ideas? Oh yeah, lotsof sensory play ideas.
So hiding foam lettersin the sand for a
treasure hunt. Youcan roll Play-Doh into
(06:29):
letters. Even simplepuppets give children an
opportunity to kindof retell stories and
boost their narrativeskills. Something else
I used to like to dois just putting objects
in different sensorymaterials like the
sand or a table or apebble table or even in
the water and then asthey're finding those
(06:51):
things kind of talkingabout if the two
objects maybe do havethat same sound at the
end or maybe they beginwith the same sound
something to keep inmind as we're really
talking about that whenwe start getting into
phonetic awareness isthat at these stages
we really want to focuson the sounds that
letters make ratherthan children's ability
to name those lettersthat's going to come
(07:13):
but what we want to dois help them be able
to recognize thosedifferent sounds of letters.
So I really like tofocus on the objects
and the sounds theystart with at this stage.
So play really justmakes that literacy
feel natural and funis what you're saying.
Yes, exactly. Natural,fun. And when kids
lead, it feels morejoyful. The learning sticks
(07:34):
because it's meaningfulto them, right?
Right. But I have tobe honest, not every
child engages right away.
I had one of my littleones, I mean, they
loved books from thenewborn stage, but I
had another one that itwas harder to get them
to sit and read withme. So what other
challenges do parents see?
(07:54):
Yeah. So what you'redescribing really
speaks a lot to attentionspans, which can
really vary at this ageand children's interests
are kind of all overthe place, right?
Looking at books might last fiveminutes before their
interest wanes andthey want to do
something else. Notonly is that normal,
we really want torespect that and follow
(08:14):
the child's lead. Wenever want these
experiences to feel forcedand like it's something
they have to do. Itcan be disappointing,
right? If I set up thisreally cool activity,
I've got my sand withmy objects in it and
we're getting in thereand I've done all
this work and then mychild doesn't want to
do it anymore. Or, youknow, I've gone to the
effort of picking outsome really cool new
(08:35):
let's say lift and flatbooks and my kid wants
no part of them itcan be disappointing
but reintroducing thosethings I used to like
with my uh my middleson he was one of those
that had a really shortattention span for
my different literacyactivities so I would
get things out when hewas in the high chair
right so I would eatquickly so when he was
(08:56):
done eating I might putthat sensory tub right
there on the highchair or I may get those
books out when he'sin the bathtub, like
times when he's alreadykind of captive to
introduce them morefrequently. And that
seemed to be super helpful.
So what tips do youhave for how parents
should respond in thissituation? Yeah. So
(09:16):
again, like I said,following your child's
lead. Don't feel likeif they're not super
interested right now,they're never going
to be. That exposureis really important.
Keeping those interactionsshort and engaging.
And modeling can bea really good way to
inspire our toddlersbecause they're wanting
(09:37):
to do things that theirolder siblings do.
They're wanting todo things that their
parents are doing. So ifwe're modeling looking
at books, it'sgoing to pique their
interest. Or if we'replaying in that activity
and really emphasizinghow much fun it is,
you'd be surprised howquickly they want to
see what they'remissing out on. And when
we think about thatengagement, books with
flaps and textures andall kinds of surprises
(10:00):
can really pique thatinterest as well.
So what about kids whojust resist reading?
Yeah, sometimes thathappens. It's just not
what they're interestedin at that time.
Find ways to integrateliteracy and books
into what theyalready love. So if
the child loves carsand signs and labels,
(10:21):
put the, or if theylove the cars, add
the signs and labelsto their toy garages
or to their little, if they lovedinosaurs, right? So
putting words aroundtheir little dinosaur
sets up. Anythingthat you can do to
add books, letters,all of those literacy
things to things they're alreadyenjoying can be helpful.
What if they have a languagedelay? Any tips for that?
(10:45):
So when we thinkabout language today,
we want to watchto see if children
during this stageare having trouble
recognizing whenwords sound the same
at the end. Sothey're not really
able to hear thatthey sound the same.
Maybe they have a superlimited vocabulary.
So we're reallywatching for those
things. And earlyintervention really does
(11:06):
matter. So if we'rerecognizing these types
of concerns, we wantto play some phonics
games, maybe evenreaching out for an
evaluation or anassessment to get some
professional supportmight be warranted.
How about multilingual homes?
So when children arein a multilingual
home, what the researchtells us, Kayla, is
(11:29):
that children thatare multilingual
actually pick up bothlanguages more easily,
which kind of, tome, always sounded
counterintuitive. Howcan we learn both easily
if, you know, ifwe're learning both at
the same time, butthat's what the research
is showing us, thatchildren really
do have that flexibilitywith their brains.
So we want to celebrateall languages.
(11:51):
Then, you know, what we calltranslanguaging, going
back and forth betweenboth languages is
completely normal,and you want to be able
to include bilingualbooks whenever possible when you
have a multilingualhome. This is going to
strengthen theirliteracy skills across
domains. That's greatinformation. And
(12:12):
what I'm hearing isreally across the
board, we're lookingfor consistency with
reading and just havingpatience with it.
You are exactly right.
Challenges can turninto opportunities
when we provide childrenthe right support.
All right. So let's wrap up.
What are your top tips forparents of two to
four-year-olds?
(12:34):
you've heard me saythis before, Kayla,
but read daily. Lotsof times we think we're
doing this more frequentlythan we actually
are. So being intentionalabout it, even having a specific
time of day like thatbedtime story is really
important. Makingit interactive with
questions and predictions,books that are
interactive with liftingthe flaps, all those
(12:55):
kinds of things.
Point out print in your dailylife, all of those
signs that they're seeing, menusat restaurants,
make a handwrittengrocery list again,
make it a scavengerhunt and giving them
materials to reallywork on those
writing muscles forscribbling and pretend
writing. And justkeep it fun, right?
(13:17):
Absolutely. That'sprobably the number
one thing to remember.
You want these experiences to bejoyful and playful, and
that way they're goingto build children's
confidence and createlifelong readers.
That's such great advice,Lynn. Thank you so
much for taking timeto share all this
information with us today.
Of course. Thanks forhaving me, Kayla. As
always, my pleasure.
(13:40):
That's our episodeof Early Childhood
on the Go. Thank youfor listening and
don't forget tosubscribe and share.
Welcome to the EarlyChildhood On The Go
podcast. I'm your host,Kayla O'Neill, and
today we're exploringliteracy development
in toddlers, the pre-reading and writing
stages for ages two tofour. And with me is
my friend and colleague,Lynn Hall. She's
a research associateat the Early Childhood
Center. Lynn, so gladthat you're here.
Thanks, Kayla.
I love the pre-readingand writing stage.
(00:30):
Toddlers are socurious, and everything
they do lays theirgroundwork for
learning and readingand writing. All
right, so let's startbig. What shifts
as kids move fromthat emergent stage
into this pre-readingand writing phase?
Well, from birth totwo, kids are mostly
(00:51):
babbling, pointingat pictures, and
recognizing voices. Bytwo to four, things look
a lot different.
They start enjoyingstorybooks and even
love talking about them.
So they're kind areready to dive into
the books. Yeah,exactly. They learn to
handle books,turning the pages one
at a time. They mighteven read by retelling
(01:13):
the story using pictures. That'sso cute. Do they
recognize symbols yet?
Yeah, they'll startto notice logos,
stop signs, evenlabels on packages,
you know, for thosefavorite foods and
things. They'llhold the books right
side up and they'llpretend to read to
their toys. All of thatis print awareness.
(01:33):
What about languageat this stage?
Language during thisstage really takes
off. Children movefrom single words into
full phrases and evensimple sentences.
They can start torecognize and even
generate some rhymes,and some of the children
even get excitedabout naming letters.
(01:54):
So at two to threeyears old, they're
already gettinginto the letters?
Yeah, sometimes. Anda few of them are
even trying to writetheir name, usually
just with scribbles,but understanding
that those scribblesmean something. They
matter. They'resymbols of their ideas.
Meanwhile, their brain isstill pruning those
(02:14):
unused pathwaysand strengthening the ones they
use the most.
So the brain isbecoming more efficient
for language andliteracy. How can parents
encourage thisengagement with print?
One of the primarythings families can do is
surround their childrenwith books and print
in their daily life.
We talked about thisa little bit in our
(02:36):
last podcast, puttingthose books where they
can reach them. Wetalked about having
them in the family room,reading during bath
time, even putting somein the car, right?
And possibly labelingobjects around the house,
even signs and magazinescount. How about just
reading out loud?
Reading aloud is essential.
(02:57):
Reading aloud every day.
Choose books thatare patterned and
predictable with thestories. And kids just
love to chime in kindof when they know
what's going to happennext. And then point
to the words as you'rereading, underline
sentences with yourfinger, talk about
the author, the title,and the pictures.
(03:18):
So it's not justabout reading to them, it's more
reading with them.
That's really well put, Kayla.
It's that interaction,it's enjoying books and reading
together, making it aninteractive experience.
Asking things like, what do youthink will happen next?
invites children toguess or finish a
(03:39):
phrase and thisbuilds comprehension
and confidenceespecially when we're
talking about abook we've looked at
a few times howabout writing skills
so we want to give ourtoddlers crayons and
paper and rememberingthat they're still
building their smallmuscles and a lot of
times when they're drawingthey're going to be
(03:59):
using their wholearm so if we can give
them big paper so theycan make those larger
movements and reallyenjoy the writing process
all of this scribblingis going to lead
to them eventuallymaking shapes and then
letters it's realpractice for expressing
their ideas and buildingthe motor skills they
(04:20):
need to write letterslater shared reading
and scribbling togetherbuild children's
phonological skillsand their vocabulary at
this stage so I thinkone thing that's on
everybody's mind. Andlike when I think about
reading from when Iwas a kid to reading
now is the jump intechnology that we've had.
We have digital booksnow, audio books.
(04:41):
Can these help and howdo parents use them?
I'd say it's allabout moderation. And
for this age, especiallyprint is better.
Screens can bereally distracting
and printed booksinvite more of a
conversation andinteraction with the
adult in their livesthan when we're
looking at somethingon a screen.
(05:02):
Got it. So let'stalk about play.
How does playconnect to literacy?
Well, play isreally the gateway.
You want to be ableto set up a library
corner with booksand stuffed animals.
Kids love pretendingto read. And during my
years as a preschoolteacher, we used to talk
about that there'smore than one way to
(05:23):
read a book. So readingthe words is one way
to read a book. butlooking at the pictures
and talking about thepictures is another way
to read a book andthen as our kids got a
little bit older inpreschool we used to play
this game calledletter detectives where
they'd have a littlemagnifying glass and and
look for differentletters in the book which
you can do the samething with vocabulary
(05:45):
words looking for differentpictures so helping
children understandthat reading those
words that they'll dolater is just one way
to read a book, butthey're already readers.
I love that idea ofmagnifying glass. That
is so fun. How aboutlike rhyming games?
Rhyming games areperfect. So clapping the
syllables and wordswhile you're playing with
(06:07):
maybe some blocks orsomething or singing
rhyming songs. It's soplayful and it really
supports these youngearly readers and writers
phonemic awarenessskills. Any sensory play
ideas? Oh yeah, lotsof sensory play ideas.
So hiding foam lettersin the sand for a
treasure hunt. Youcan roll Play-Doh into
(06:29):
letters. Even simplepuppets give children an
opportunity to kindof retell stories and
boost their narrativeskills. Something else
I used to like to dois just putting objects
in different sensorymaterials like the
sand or a table or apebble table or even in
the water and then asthey're finding those
(06:51):
things kind of talkingabout if the two
objects maybe do havethat same sound at the
end or maybe they beginwith the same sound
something to keep inmind as we're really
talking about that whenwe start getting into
phonetic awareness isthat at these stages
we really want to focuson the sounds that
letters make ratherthan children's ability
to name those lettersthat's going to come
(07:13):
but what we want to dois help them be able
to recognize thosedifferent sounds of letters.
So I really like tofocus on the objects
and the sounds theystart with at this stage.
So play really justmakes that literacy
feel natural and funis what you're saying.
Yes, exactly. Natural,fun. And when kids
lead, it feels morejoyful. The learning sticks
(07:34):
because it's meaningfulto them, right?
Right. But I have tobe honest, not every
child engages right away.
I had one of my littleones, I mean, they
loved books from thenewborn stage, but I
had another one that itwas harder to get them
to sit and read withme. So what other
challenges do parents see?
(07:54):
Yeah. So what you'redescribing really
speaks a lot to attentionspans, which can
really vary at this ageand children's interests
are kind of all overthe place, right?
Looking at books might last fiveminutes before their
interest wanes andthey want to do
something else. Notonly is that normal,
we really want torespect that and follow
(08:14):
the child's lead. Wenever want these
experiences to feel forcedand like it's something
they have to do. Itcan be disappointing,
right? If I set up thisreally cool activity,
I've got my sand withmy objects in it and
we're getting in thereand I've done all
this work and then mychild doesn't want to
do it anymore. Or, youknow, I've gone to the
effort of picking outsome really cool new
(08:35):
let's say lift and flatbooks and my kid wants
no part of them itcan be disappointing
but reintroducing thosethings I used to like
with my uh my middleson he was one of those
that had a really shortattention span for
my different literacyactivities so I would
get things out when hewas in the high chair
right so I would eatquickly so when he was
(08:56):
done eating I might putthat sensory tub right
there on the highchair or I may get those
books out when he'sin the bathtub, like
times when he's alreadykind of captive to
introduce them morefrequently. And that
seemed to be super helpful.
So what tips do youhave for how parents
should respond in thissituation? Yeah. So
(09:16):
again, like I said,following your child's
lead. Don't feel likeif they're not super
interested right now,they're never going
to be. That exposureis really important.
Keeping those interactionsshort and engaging.
And modeling can bea really good way to
inspire our toddlersbecause they're wanting
(09:37):
to do things that theirolder siblings do.
They're wanting todo things that their
parents are doing. So ifwe're modeling looking
at books, it'sgoing to pique their
interest. Or if we'replaying in that activity
and really emphasizinghow much fun it is,
you'd be surprised howquickly they want to
see what they'remissing out on. And when
we think about thatengagement, books with
flaps and textures andall kinds of surprises
(10:00):
can really pique thatinterest as well.
So what about kids whojust resist reading?
Yeah, sometimes thathappens. It's just not
what they're interestedin at that time.
Find ways to integrateliteracy and books
into what theyalready love. So if
the child loves carsand signs and labels,
(10:21):
put the, or if theylove the cars, add
the signs and labelsto their toy garages
or to their little, if they lovedinosaurs, right? So
putting words aroundtheir little dinosaur
sets up. Anythingthat you can do to
add books, letters,all of those literacy
things to things they're alreadyenjoying can be helpful.
What if they have a languagedelay? Any tips for that?
(10:45):
So when we thinkabout language today,
we want to watchto see if children
during this stageare having trouble
recognizing whenwords sound the same
at the end. Sothey're not really
able to hear thatthey sound the same.
Maybe they have a superlimited vocabulary.
So we're reallywatching for those
things. And earlyintervention really does
(11:06):
matter. So if we'rerecognizing these types
of concerns, we wantto play some phonics
games, maybe evenreaching out for an
evaluation or anassessment to get some
professional supportmight be warranted.
How about multilingual homes?
So when children arein a multilingual
home, what the researchtells us, Kayla, is
(11:29):
that children thatare multilingual
actually pick up bothlanguages more easily,
which kind of, tome, always sounded
counterintuitive. Howcan we learn both easily
if, you know, ifwe're learning both at
the same time, butthat's what the research
is showing us, thatchildren really
do have that flexibilitywith their brains.
So we want to celebrateall languages.
(11:51):
Then, you know, what we calltranslanguaging, going
back and forth betweenboth languages is
completely normal,and you want to be able
to include bilingualbooks whenever possible when you
have a multilingualhome. This is going to
strengthen theirliteracy skills across
domains. That's greatinformation. And
(12:12):
what I'm hearing isreally across the
board, we're lookingfor consistency with
reading and just havingpatience with it.
You are exactly right.
Challenges can turninto opportunities
when we provide childrenthe right support.
All right. So let's wrap up.
What are your top tips forparents of two to
four-year-olds?
(12:34):
you've heard me saythis before, Kayla,
but read daily. Lotsof times we think we're
doing this more frequentlythan we actually
are. So being intentionalabout it, even having a specific
time of day like thatbedtime story is really
important. Makingit interactive with
questions and predictions,books that are
interactive with liftingthe flaps, all those
(12:55):
kinds of things.
Point out print in your dailylife, all of those
signs that they're seeing, menusat restaurants,
make a handwrittengrocery list again,
make it a scavengerhunt and giving them
materials to reallywork on those
writing muscles forscribbling and pretend
writing. And justkeep it fun, right?
(13:17):
Absolutely. That'sprobably the number
one thing to remember.
You want these experiences to bejoyful and playful, and
that way they're goingto build children's
confidence and createlifelong readers.
That's such great advice,Lynn. Thank you so
much for taking timeto share all this
information with us today.
Of course. Thanks forhaving me, Kayla. As
always, my pleasure.
(13:40):
That's our episodeof Early Childhood
on the Go. Thank youfor listening and
don't forget tosubscribe and share.
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