June 25, 2025 • 24 mins
Literacy begins long before a child reads their first word. In this illuminating conversation with early childhood expert Lynne Hall, we uncover the five foundational literacy skills every young child needs to develop before formal reading instruction begins.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Early Childhood On the Go podcast,
where the Early Childhood Centerteam shares ideas and
strategies for professionals andfamilies.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Dream big start early Early Childhood podcast.
Today I'm going to be talkingto Lynn Hall about early
literacy.
We're so excited to have thisconversation today.
Can you go ahead and give?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
us a little bit of background information about
yourself, lynn?
Yeah, of course, kayla, sothank you so much for having me
here to talk about one of myfavorite subjects, which is
early literacy.
My background includes I was apreschool teacher for over 15
years.
I've been a research associatewith the Early Childhood Center
for about the last 10-11 years,and I have a strong focus on
(00:53):
supporting early literacy andwhat that means for all
different types of learners, andso I'm thrilled to be here and
talking about this today.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
That's awesome.
So today we're really going togo over five key early literacy
skills I'm going to ask Lynnsome questions about so we can
learn all about these skills.
So we'll just kind of diveright in.
Can you explain?
Well, first off, we'll startoff with phonological awareness.
That's our first skill thatwe're looking into.
Can you explain whatphonological awareness is and
(01:23):
why it's crucial for earlyliteracy development?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Absolutely so.
When we think aboutphonological awareness, it
refers to the ability forchildren to be able to recognize
and manipulate the soundstructures of language, so
including awareness of phonemes,those individual sounds,
syllables, onsets and rhymeswhich are the beginning and
ending of words, and then largerunits like words and sentences.
(01:49):
Phonological awareness is anessential skill for early
literacy development.
It helps children understand howsounds work together to form
words and sentences.
It includes activities likerecognizing rhyming words,
identifying the beginning sounds, counting syllables and
blending or segmenting soundsinto words.
Strong phonological skillssupports reading and spelling
(02:12):
skills by helping childrenconnect sounds to letters,
making it a critical foundationfor learning to read and write.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Okay, that sounds super important.
So if you are a caregiver or aparent or even an educator, you
know what activities can we doto really develop phonological
awareness.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well, the first thing , Kayla, is to make it fun.
You want to provide fun andengaging activities that focus
on sounds and wordplay.
For example, you can readrhyming books together,
emphasize those rhyming wordsand encourage children to
predict the next rhyming word.
Singing songs, playing withalliteration, things like Silly
(02:52):
Sammy swiftly sips soup, andclapping syllables and words,
also helps children tune intothose sounds of language.
Additionally, parents andcaregivers can play games like I
Spy with beginning sounds.
Additionally, parents andcaregivers can play games like I
Spy with beginning sounds I Spyis something that starts with M
or engage in sound matchingactivities where children
identify objects or picturesthat begin with the same sound.
(03:13):
These playful interactions notonly strengthen phonological
awareness, but they lay thefoundation again for later
reading and writing skills.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Wow.
So these are things that we canreally start doing from the
very beginning, even with ourbabies and toddlers, when we're
singing those nursery rhymes andthose finger plays.
That's, I guess.
There's so many things that wecan start doing from day one.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
That encompasses the ability torecognize and manipulate
various sound units in spokenlanguage, including syllables,
again onsets, those initialsounds in words and rhymes,
which is the end of a word.
It involves activities likeclapping out syllables,
recognizing the rhyming words,all those things that we just
talked about.
Phonemic awareness, on theother hand, is kind of a
(03:59):
specific subset of phonologicalawareness that focuses solely on
those individual units theability to hear, identify and
then manipulate individualletter sounds or phonemes.
They're the smallest units ofsound in language.
Phonemic awareness involvesskills like blending sounds
together to form words.
(04:19):
So when we think of a word likecat, we're talking about three
different phonemes the C, the Aand the T right, so we're
segmenting words into theircomponent sounds.
Phonological awareness is anessential foundation for reading
and writing, just likephonological awareness.
Phonemic awareness is as well,but it's specifically crucial
(04:41):
for decoding and spelling words.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Okay, so let's dive a little bit more into that
phonemic awareness.
So what role does phonemicawareness play in the child's
ability to, let's say, read orwrite?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So phonemic awareness plays a crucial role in a
child's ability to read andwrite because it helps them
understand the relationshipbetween sounds and letters,
which is essential for decodingand encoding, which is when
we're writing.
When children can isolate,blend, segment and manipulate
individual phonemes, thosesmallest units of sound in
(05:17):
language, they gain the skillsneeded to recognize how sounds
correspond to letters and lettercombination.
This ability allows them tosound out familiar words while
reading and break words downinto their component sounds when
spelling.
For example, if a child canhear and manipulate the sounds
in the word cat, they can decodeit when reading and also write
(05:42):
it correctly.
Phonemic awareness lays thefoundation for phonics
instruction and is stronglylinked to early reading success.
It enables children to unlockthe written word by connecting
sounds and symbols.
Without strong phonemicawareness, children may struggle
with both reading fluency andspelling accuracy.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Once again, this really sounds like an important
early literacy skill, so can youshare some effective strategies
for teaching phonemic awarenessto young learners?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Effective strategies that focuson making sound manipulation
fun and interactive.
Again, we're talking aboutyoung children, so we need to
keep things fun and light and Ican't say strongly enough if
children aren't interested, weneed to pivot and try a
different activity or strategy.
One strategy is segmenting andblending sounds.
(06:33):
You can start by saying a wordvery slowly, just like when we
were talking about cats.
So we're going to say it slowlyand we're going to kind of
emphasize each sound in the wordand then encourage a child to
identify those different soundsand then help them blend those
sounds back together to say theword.
Another useful strategy issound substitution, where
(06:54):
children are asked to change onesound in a word to create a new
word, such as clapping M in matand changing it to H to hat.
Rhyming games are also supereffective.
Children can listen for thewords that rhyme and then, as
they gain skills, they can evengenerate their own rhymes to
(07:15):
reinforce sound patterns.
We kind of think of this aswhen they kind of make up
nonsense words that sound thesame at the end.
Lots of songs and chants canemphasize the sounds, or
syllables are a great way toengage children while
reinforcing phonemic awarenessthrough rhyme and repetition.
Additionally, using visual aidslike pictures or letter cards
(07:35):
can help children connect soundswith their corresponding
letters.
And finally, interactive gameslike I Spy with sounds or
playing with magnetic lettersgive children a hands-on way to
explore phonemes in an enjoyableand meaningful way.
These strategies, when they'repracticed regularly and in a
playful context, help childrenbuild a solid foundation for
(07:56):
early literacy skills.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
So one big thing that I'm really hearing is just keep
it fun.
Absolutely, we want to keepreading that positive experience
, and I, you know when I thinkof you know even those little
toddlers reading or, you know,trying to do activities.
Sometimes they're so busy thatit gets tricky, but we just want
to keep it fun.
Low pressure is what you'resaying.
Yes.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
And one other important thing I want to add,
Kayla, when we start thinkingabout letter sounds.
The research has shown thatchildren's ability to identify
letter sounds is even moreimportant than their ability to
recognize letter formation orwhat a letter looks like.
So when you're playing thesegames with children and letters,
remember we really want tofocus on the sounds that a
(08:40):
letter makes.
It's more important that yourchild knows that A makes the A
or the A sound than that theyknow how to write it or how to
pick it out of a group ofletters.
Not that we don't want to workon that, but knowing what the
letter sounds like is moreimportant when we're talking
about our youngest learners.
Another effective strategy Iwant folks to remember is what
(09:02):
we call kind of eliminating theschwa sound, and that's where
using letters or saying theirsounds and we're putting an uh
at the end.
So if we say oh, that's letterR, it says ra.
We want to eliminate that uhsound.
It says l.
It doesn't make the last sound.
(09:22):
When we add that, what we callthe schwa, that sound at the end
of letters, it makes readingmore difficult when children get
older because they're addingthat sound when they're
identifying letters in text.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It does, and I'm actually learning a lot here
because I, you know, as a parent, when I was, you know, working
with you know my kids on theirearly literacy skills when they
were little, I always focused onthat more identification and
it's a letter A than thosesounds that you're talking about
.
So I think this is great toshare with all caregivers and
educators.
That might be something new forthem.
(09:55):
Yeah, absolutely, that's great.
So if we're wanting to you know, if a caregiver wants to kind
of assess their own child'sphonemic awareness skills at
home, how would they go aboutdoing that, or is that even
important to do?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I think it's always a good idea to know where our
children are with their skilllevel, whether that's in a
classroom setting, at achildcare center or at home.
So if that's something that aparent wants to think about, you
can assess those skills byengaging in those simple,
informal activities that involvelistening for manipulating
those sounds in the words.
(10:30):
So basically, we're going to goback to all of those activities
that we've been talking aboutand kind of assessing how
children are doing with those.
How are they responding, howare they able to identify those
different pieces, if that makessense.
So let's make it a little moreconcrete.
So one easy way to assessphonemic awareness is by asking
the child to identify the firstor last sound in a word, such as
(10:52):
asking what sound do you hearat the beginning of dog or what
sound do you hear at the end ofcat?
Again, we're focusing on thosesounds.
Caregivers can also testsegmenting and blending skills
by saying a word slowly andasking children to repeat it
with those individual sounds.
What sounds do you hear in fish?
To assess rhyming ability,caregivers can read a short list
(11:15):
of words aloud, such as cat,hat and dog, and ask the child
which words rhyme Another way toassess phonemic awareness is by
asking children to change onesound again in a word.
What word do you get if youchange the sound in pat to or h?
These activities can be done invery playful, low-pressure ways
(11:38):
, allowing caregivers to observechildren's understanding of
phonemic concepts while makingthem fun and engaging.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I love that.
This is all very practicalstuff that you know caregivers
can do in the comfort of theirown home.
So that's great to know.
We're moving right along.
We're to our third key earlyliteracy skill.
We're going to talk about orallanguage skills.
Why are oral language skillsconsidered foundational for
literacy development?
So, oral language skills whyare oral language skills
considered foundational forliteracy?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
development.
So oral language skills areconsidered foundational for
literacy development becausethey form the building blocks
for reading and writing.
Before children can decodewritten words, they need to be
able to understand and producelanguage orally, which includes
vocabulary development, sentencestructure and the ability to
understand and use words.
Sounds in words.
(12:26):
Strong oral language skillshelp children recognize the
relationship between spoken andwritten words, which is crucial
for both phonological andphonemic awareness.
For example, a child who canrecognize rhyming words or
manipulate sounds in spokenlanguage is more likely to
successfully decode those wordswhen they see them in print.
Additionally, oral languagehelps children develop
(12:50):
comprehension skills as theylearn to understand the meanings
of words and sentences inconversation, stories and other
spoken texts.
Engaging in conversation,storytelling and hearing rich,
varied language all contributeto the cognitive and linguistic
foundation that support laterreading and writing success.
Fostering oral languagedevelopment at an early age sets
(13:13):
the stage for strong literacyskills later.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So I've loved all the ideas that you've shared so far
about how to work on earlyliteracy at home.
What are some fun ways toencourage children to really
expand their vocabulary and orallanguage skills?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So one great way, which is not going to be new to
anybody, is reading bookstogether and then discussing the
story, pointing out new orinteresting words and their
meanings.
Caregivers can make this moreinteractive by asking questions
like what do you think this wordmeans?
Can you use this word in asentence?
Another fun approach is playingpretend or engaging in role
(13:49):
play, which allows children touse words in context and
practice language in differentscenarios, like playing store or
cooking in a pretend kitchen.
Singing songs and chantingrhymes also helps children to
hear new vocabulary in arhythmic, memorable way.
You can also play again I Spywith objects around the house,
encouraging children to describewhat they see using specific
(14:11):
vocabulary such as colors,shapes or textures.
Additionally, descriptivestorytelling, where children
help create a story using theirimagination and new words,
fosters both languagedevelopment and creativity.
These playful activities notonly make learning fun, but also
build a rich vocabulary thatsupports later reading and
(14:32):
writing.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
These are great ideas and I think one that you
mentioned that I've done in thepast and I feel like it's almost
become kind of a lost art isthat oral storytelling.
I feel like we see a lot ofparents reading books with their
kiddos, but there's so muchvalue in just telling a story.
How can parents or caregiversget started with that?
Do you have any good ideas forthat?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I think the first piece is to really get back to
having more conversations withour kids.
Life is so busy, right, we'repulled in so many different
directions, but getting back tohaving conversations can really
lead us in to the storytelling,and these play a vital role by
fostering key language abilities, including vocabulary,
(15:15):
comprehension, narrativestructure.
When children are engaged instorytelling, whether listening
to a story or creating onethemselves, they learn to
recognize the sequence of events, understand character,
motivations and grasp thestructure of stories, meaning
that beginning, middle and anend.
This helps develop theircomprehension skills, which are
essential for reading andunderstanding text later,
(15:37):
develop their comprehensionskills, which are essential for
reading and understanding textlater.
Conversations with caregiversalso play an important role by
introducing again new words,encouraging children to express
their thoughts and modelingcorrect sentence structure.
When they're having thatback-and-forth dialogue,
children learn how languageworks.
They learn about grammar andsyntax and how to use words to
(15:57):
communicate ideas.
Storytelling and conversationsencourage children to think
critically and expand theirvocabulary, both of which are
foundational for reading andwriting.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, that's great.
Next up, we're going to talkabout concepts about kind of
print.
What are the essential conceptsabout print that children
should learn before they startreading?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
So probably the most important thing they need to
learn first is that print hasmeaning, and then words on a
page actually reflect orrepresent spoken language.
Children learn to recognize thedirectionality of print, so
understanding that we read fromleft to right and from the top
to the bottom of the page.
(16:40):
They also become familiar withthe idea that books have a title
, an author, an illustrator, andthat these elements convey
specific information about thestory.
Also, children begin tounderstand that spaces between
words separate individual wordsand that letters, when combined,
form words with specificmeanings.
(17:02):
They also start to recognizeletters in their names, as well
as the concept that uppercaseand lowercase letters are
different, but both form thepart of written language.
These early understandings helpchildren make sense of written
text, preparing them to make theconnection between spoken and
written word, which is essentialfor learning to read.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
So how can parents and educators create a
print-rich environment tosupport early literacy?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
We want to surround children with a variety of
written materials that are bothaccessible and engaging.
Of written materials that areboth accessible and engaging,
this can include labelingobjects around the house with
simple words door, table,refrigerator to help children
make that connection betweenwords and the items they
represent.
Having books, magazines and,dare I say, old school
(17:51):
newspapers readily availableencourages children to explore
printed text in a natural way.
Encourages children to exploreprinted text in a natural way.
Interactive materials likemagnets, alphabet charts or
writing stations with crayonsand paper provide opportunities
for children to experiment withwriting and letter recognition.
Caregivers can also engagechildren in daily reading
(18:12):
routines, such as reading booksaloud together or sharing
stories that include familiarwords and phrases.
Writing notes, writing lists ormessages to children and
involving them in these taskshelps reinforce the idea that
writing is a meaningful way tocommunicate.
And then, in this day oftexting, I think it's more
important than ever that we getback to doing some of this with
(18:34):
our younger children.
So by consistently surroundingchildren with print in their
daily lives, caregivers providethem with opportunities to
observe, interact with andengage in literacy activities.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Sounds like there's a lot of different options for
parents when they're just tryingto create that environment.
So thank you for sharing those.
Yeah, last but not least, we'reto talk about early writing
skills.
This is our fifth earlyliteracy skill that we wanted to
cover today.
So what are some key milestonesin early writing development
(19:07):
that parents should look for?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Sure.
So the first thing we thinkabout when it comes to writing
skills is that intentionalscribbling, and this starts to
come around two to three yearsof age.
With that intentionalscribbling, and this starts to
come around two to three yearsof age, at this early stage,
children are experimenting withholding writing tools, just
making random marks or scribbles, and, while they don't yet form
letters or words, this is thefoundation for later writing
(19:30):
skills.
Next we think about childrenthat are about three to four
years old.
We call this the pre-writingand letter-like forms.
Children begin to draw shapesor make letter-like symbols that
resemble actual letters.
They may start to recognizesome letters and make attempts
to write their name or other,even simple words.
Then, when we get to about fourto five years old, we think
(19:53):
about letter recognition andwriting Children.
At this stage they canrecognize and name letters of
the alphabet.
They start to write simplewords, usually using phonetic
spelling as opposed totraditional spelling, and they
may also begin to write theirnames with more accuracy.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So how can children be encouraged to express
themselves through writing at anearly age?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
You can start by providing opportunities for
creative expression throughactivities like drawing,
coloring and doodling.
Again, these lay the foundationfor those later writing skills.
Be sure to protect yoursurfaces and offer
developmentally appropriatematerials so that these
experiences can be stress-freefor you and the child.
Toddlers are going to needgiant pieces of paper to be able
(20:37):
to move their whole arm to makemarks on the paper.
One of my favorite writingactivities with toddlers is to
give them a bucket of water anda paintbrush or a jumbo sidewalk
chalk and just let them draw onthe sidewalk or the side of the
building.
As children grow and they havemore motor control, they can
work on smaller canvases.
Likewise, be sure toddlers areusing washable and non-toxic
(21:00):
materials.
Offer a variety of writing toolscrayons, markers, chalk to
spark their interest and makewriting feel exciting.
You want to engage ininteractive reading sessions and
encourage them to write bydrawing pictures about the
stories or the characters.
Make writing a part of dailylife.
Writing simple notes and liststogether is important.
(21:21):
As children grow, praise theirefforts and celebrate small
achievements like forming theirfirst letter or writing their
name.
Make writing positive,enjoyable and incorporated into
your daily routines.
That way you can foster a lovefor writing early on.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Well, I love that you're mentioning to really just
find ways to work into yourdaily routines.
I remember when my kiddos werelittle, one of the first kind of
I guess you know early writingthing that we would do is I
would have them help me writethe grocery list.
It was something that you knowand theirs would obviously look
very different, but they justthey saw me doing it and they
(21:58):
wanted to help, and so, doingside by side, that was one
little thing that we used to do.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, and that's such a great point because again, in
this day of technology andmaking our lives easier,
everything becomes digital rightand we kind of lose that art of
actually modeling for ourchildren, writing things on
paper.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, it's changed so much.
It's so funny.
My son he recently did a fieldtrip to like a one room
schoolhouse and one of theactivities that they did that
day was they wrote in cursive.
And it's just so interestingbecause they're not taught
cursive anymore and we grew updoing cursive and so you can see
the changes in writing alreadyand it'll be interesting to see
(22:40):
what this, what this looks like,even five to 10 years from now.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yes, Just to get us back on track.
What role does play have indeveloping early literacy skills
?
We talk about play a lot inearly childhood.
How can it be incorporated intolearning these early writing
skills?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
So when we think about early writing, what does
that entail?
So children have to have somesmall motor skills and some
strength in their hands and intheir fingers.
So activities like playing withclay or dough, manipulating
buttons and zippers and snaps,tearing paper, manipulating
collage materials or using thosesafety scissors can help
(23:20):
strengthen those hand musclesand prepare children for holding
a pencil later on.
Pretend play, such as playingoffice or store, provides
opportunities for children tomake lists and signs and pretend
notes which mimic real-lifewriting tasks.
Drawing and coloring, often apart of imaginative play, allow
children to experiment withshapes and letters.
(23:41):
Building that foundation forwriting and then offering things
like chalk and markers andpaper during playtime allows
children to freely explorewriting and letter formation.
Children really learn throughplay, as we were just talking
about.
They develop the motor skills,but also gain confidence and a
sense of purpose and theirability to communicate through
writing.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I love all those ideas.
We just know that kids learnthrough play, so these are great
ways to support those earlyliteracy skills.
Well, I think we coveredeverything that we wanted today
about those five key earlyliteracy skills.
Thank you so much, lynn.
This is such great information.
If you're listening, I hope youenjoy this podcast and please
tune into Early Childhood On theGo again.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me and letting me
talk about one of my favoritethings.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Thanks for listening to the Early Childhood On the Go
podcast from the EarlyChildhood Center team at Indiana
University.
Learn more at iidcindianaeduslash ecc.
Welcome to the Early Childhood On the Go podcast,
where the Early Childhood Centerteam shares ideas and
strategies for professionals andfamilies.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Dream big start early Early Childhood podcast.
Today I'm going to be talkingto Lynn Hall about early
literacy.
We're so excited to have thisconversation today.
Can you go ahead and give?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
us a little bit of background information about
yourself, lynn?
Yeah, of course, kayla, sothank you so much for having me
here to talk about one of myfavorite subjects, which is
early literacy.
My background includes I was apreschool teacher for over 15
years.
I've been a research associatewith the Early Childhood Center
for about the last 10-11 years,and I have a strong focus on
(00:53):
supporting early literacy andwhat that means for all
different types of learners, andso I'm thrilled to be here and
talking about this today.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
That's awesome.
So today we're really going togo over five key early literacy
skills I'm going to ask Lynnsome questions about so we can
learn all about these skills.
So we'll just kind of diveright in.
Can you explain?
Well, first off, we'll startoff with phonological awareness.
That's our first skill thatwe're looking into.
Can you explain whatphonological awareness is and
(01:23):
why it's crucial for earlyliteracy development?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Absolutely so.
When we think aboutphonological awareness, it
refers to the ability forchildren to be able to recognize
and manipulate the soundstructures of language, so
including awareness of phonemes,those individual sounds,
syllables, onsets and rhymeswhich are the beginning and
ending of words, and then largerunits like words and sentences.
(01:49):
Phonological awareness is anessential skill for early
literacy development.
It helps children understand howsounds work together to form
words and sentences.
It includes activities likerecognizing rhyming words,
identifying the beginning sounds, counting syllables and
blending or segmenting soundsinto words.
Strong phonological skillssupports reading and spelling
(02:12):
skills by helping childrenconnect sounds to letters,
making it a critical foundationfor learning to read and write.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Okay, that sounds super important.
So if you are a caregiver or aparent or even an educator, you
know what activities can we doto really develop phonological
awareness.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well, the first thing , Kayla, is to make it fun.
You want to provide fun andengaging activities that focus
on sounds and wordplay.
For example, you can readrhyming books together,
emphasize those rhyming wordsand encourage children to
predict the next rhyming word.
Singing songs, playing withalliteration, things like Silly
(02:52):
Sammy swiftly sips soup, andclapping syllables and words,
also helps children tune intothose sounds of language.
Additionally, parents andcaregivers can play games like I
Spy with beginning sounds.
Additionally, parents andcaregivers can play games like I
Spy with beginning sounds I Spyis something that starts with M
or engage in sound matchingactivities where children
identify objects or picturesthat begin with the same sound.
(03:13):
These playful interactions notonly strengthen phonological
awareness, but they lay thefoundation again for later
reading and writing skills.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Wow.
So these are things that we canreally start doing from the
very beginning, even with ourbabies and toddlers, when we're
singing those nursery rhymes andthose finger plays.
That's, I guess.
There's so many things that wecan start doing from day one.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
That encompasses the ability torecognize and manipulate
various sound units in spokenlanguage, including syllables,
again onsets, those initialsounds in words and rhymes,
which is the end of a word.
It involves activities likeclapping out syllables,
recognizing the rhyming words,all those things that we just
talked about.
Phonemic awareness, on theother hand, is kind of a
(03:59):
specific subset of phonologicalawareness that focuses solely on
those individual units theability to hear, identify and
then manipulate individualletter sounds or phonemes.
They're the smallest units ofsound in language.
Phonemic awareness involvesskills like blending sounds
together to form words.
(04:19):
So when we think of a word likecat, we're talking about three
different phonemes the C, the Aand the T right, so we're
segmenting words into theircomponent sounds.
Phonological awareness is anessential foundation for reading
and writing, just likephonological awareness.
Phonemic awareness is as well,but it's specifically crucial
(04:41):
for decoding and spelling words.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Okay, so let's dive a little bit more into that
phonemic awareness.
So what role does phonemicawareness play in the child's
ability to, let's say, read orwrite?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So phonemic awareness plays a crucial role in a
child's ability to read andwrite because it helps them
understand the relationshipbetween sounds and letters,
which is essential for decodingand encoding, which is when
we're writing.
When children can isolate,blend, segment and manipulate
individual phonemes, thosesmallest units of sound in
(05:17):
language, they gain the skillsneeded to recognize how sounds
correspond to letters and lettercombination.
This ability allows them tosound out familiar words while
reading and break words downinto their component sounds when
spelling.
For example, if a child canhear and manipulate the sounds
in the word cat, they can decodeit when reading and also write
(05:42):
it correctly.
Phonemic awareness lays thefoundation for phonics
instruction and is stronglylinked to early reading success.
It enables children to unlockthe written word by connecting
sounds and symbols.
Without strong phonemicawareness, children may struggle
with both reading fluency andspelling accuracy.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Once again, this really sounds like an important
early literacy skill, so can youshare some effective strategies
for teaching phonemic awarenessto young learners?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Effective strategies that focuson making sound manipulation
fun and interactive.
Again, we're talking aboutyoung children, so we need to
keep things fun and light and Ican't say strongly enough if
children aren't interested, weneed to pivot and try a
different activity or strategy.
One strategy is segmenting andblending sounds.
(06:33):
You can start by saying a wordvery slowly, just like when we
were talking about cats.
So we're going to say it slowlyand we're going to kind of
emphasize each sound in the wordand then encourage a child to
identify those different soundsand then help them blend those
sounds back together to say theword.
Another useful strategy issound substitution, where
(06:54):
children are asked to change onesound in a word to create a new
word, such as clapping M in matand changing it to H to hat.
Rhyming games are also supereffective.
Children can listen for thewords that rhyme and then, as
they gain skills, they can evengenerate their own rhymes to
(07:15):
reinforce sound patterns.
We kind of think of this aswhen they kind of make up
nonsense words that sound thesame at the end.
Lots of songs and chants canemphasize the sounds, or
syllables are a great way toengage children while
reinforcing phonemic awarenessthrough rhyme and repetition.
Additionally, using visual aidslike pictures or letter cards
(07:35):
can help children connect soundswith their corresponding
letters.
And finally, interactive gameslike I Spy with sounds or
playing with magnetic lettersgive children a hands-on way to
explore phonemes in an enjoyableand meaningful way.
These strategies, when they'repracticed regularly and in a
playful context, help childrenbuild a solid foundation for
(07:56):
early literacy skills.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
So one big thing that I'm really hearing is just keep
it fun.
Absolutely, we want to keepreading that positive experience
, and I, you know when I thinkof you know even those little
toddlers reading or, you know,trying to do activities.
Sometimes they're so busy thatit gets tricky, but we just want
to keep it fun.
Low pressure is what you'resaying.
Yes.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
And one other important thing I want to add,
Kayla, when we start thinkingabout letter sounds.
The research has shown thatchildren's ability to identify
letter sounds is even moreimportant than their ability to
recognize letter formation orwhat a letter looks like.
So when you're playing thesegames with children and letters,
remember we really want tofocus on the sounds that a
(08:40):
letter makes.
It's more important that yourchild knows that A makes the A
or the A sound than that theyknow how to write it or how to
pick it out of a group ofletters.
Not that we don't want to workon that, but knowing what the
letter sounds like is moreimportant when we're talking
about our youngest learners.
Another effective strategy Iwant folks to remember is what
(09:02):
we call kind of eliminating theschwa sound, and that's where
using letters or saying theirsounds and we're putting an uh
at the end.
So if we say oh, that's letterR, it says ra.
We want to eliminate that uhsound.
It says l.
It doesn't make the last sound.
(09:22):
When we add that, what we callthe schwa, that sound at the end
of letters, it makes readingmore difficult when children get
older because they're addingthat sound when they're
identifying letters in text.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It does, and I'm actually learning a lot here
because I, you know, as a parent, when I was, you know, working
with you know my kids on theirearly literacy skills when they
were little, I always focused onthat more identification and
it's a letter A than thosesounds that you're talking about
.
So I think this is great toshare with all caregivers and
educators.
That might be something new forthem.
(09:55):
Yeah, absolutely, that's great.
So if we're wanting to you know, if a caregiver wants to kind
of assess their own child'sphonemic awareness skills at
home, how would they go aboutdoing that, or is that even
important to do?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I think it's always a good idea to know where our
children are with their skilllevel, whether that's in a
classroom setting, at achildcare center or at home.
So if that's something that aparent wants to think about, you
can assess those skills byengaging in those simple,
informal activities that involvelistening for manipulating
those sounds in the words.
(10:30):
So basically, we're going to goback to all of those activities
that we've been talking aboutand kind of assessing how
children are doing with those.
How are they responding, howare they able to identify those
different pieces, if that makessense.
So let's make it a little moreconcrete.
So one easy way to assessphonemic awareness is by asking
the child to identify the firstor last sound in a word, such as
(10:52):
asking what sound do you hearat the beginning of dog or what
sound do you hear at the end ofcat?
Again, we're focusing on thosesounds.
Caregivers can also testsegmenting and blending skills
by saying a word slowly andasking children to repeat it
with those individual sounds.
What sounds do you hear in fish?
To assess rhyming ability,caregivers can read a short list
(11:15):
of words aloud, such as cat,hat and dog, and ask the child
which words rhyme Another way toassess phonemic awareness is by
asking children to change onesound again in a word.
What word do you get if youchange the sound in pat to or h?
These activities can be done invery playful, low-pressure ways
(11:38):
, allowing caregivers to observechildren's understanding of
phonemic concepts while makingthem fun and engaging.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I love that.
This is all very practicalstuff that you know caregivers
can do in the comfort of theirown home.
So that's great to know.
We're moving right along.
We're to our third key earlyliteracy skill.
We're going to talk about orallanguage skills.
Why are oral language skillsconsidered foundational for
literacy development?
So, oral language skills whyare oral language skills
considered foundational forliteracy?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
development.
So oral language skills areconsidered foundational for
literacy development becausethey form the building blocks
for reading and writing.
Before children can decodewritten words, they need to be
able to understand and producelanguage orally, which includes
vocabulary development, sentencestructure and the ability to
understand and use words.
Sounds in words.
(12:26):
Strong oral language skillshelp children recognize the
relationship between spoken andwritten words, which is crucial
for both phonological andphonemic awareness.
For example, a child who canrecognize rhyming words or
manipulate sounds in spokenlanguage is more likely to
successfully decode those wordswhen they see them in print.
Additionally, oral languagehelps children develop
(12:50):
comprehension skills as theylearn to understand the meanings
of words and sentences inconversation, stories and other
spoken texts.
Engaging in conversation,storytelling and hearing rich,
varied language all contributeto the cognitive and linguistic
foundation that support laterreading and writing success.
Fostering oral languagedevelopment at an early age sets
(13:13):
the stage for strong literacyskills later.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So I've loved all the ideas that you've shared so far
about how to work on earlyliteracy at home.
What are some fun ways toencourage children to really
expand their vocabulary and orallanguage skills?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So one great way, which is not going to be new to
anybody, is reading bookstogether and then discussing the
story, pointing out new orinteresting words and their
meanings.
Caregivers can make this moreinteractive by asking questions
like what do you think this wordmeans?
Can you use this word in asentence?
Another fun approach is playingpretend or engaging in role
(13:49):
play, which allows children touse words in context and
practice language in differentscenarios, like playing store or
cooking in a pretend kitchen.
Singing songs and chantingrhymes also helps children to
hear new vocabulary in arhythmic, memorable way.
You can also play again I Spywith objects around the house,
encouraging children to describewhat they see using specific
(14:11):
vocabulary such as colors,shapes or textures.
Additionally, descriptivestorytelling, where children
help create a story using theirimagination and new words,
fosters both languagedevelopment and creativity.
These playful activities notonly make learning fun, but also
build a rich vocabulary thatsupports later reading and
(14:32):
writing.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
These are great ideas and I think one that you
mentioned that I've done in thepast and I feel like it's almost
become kind of a lost art isthat oral storytelling.
I feel like we see a lot ofparents reading books with their
kiddos, but there's so muchvalue in just telling a story.
How can parents or caregiversget started with that?
Do you have any good ideas forthat?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I think the first piece is to really get back to
having more conversations withour kids.
Life is so busy, right, we'repulled in so many different
directions, but getting back tohaving conversations can really
lead us in to the storytelling,and these play a vital role by
fostering key language abilities, including vocabulary,
(15:15):
comprehension, narrativestructure.
When children are engaged instorytelling, whether listening
to a story or creating onethemselves, they learn to
recognize the sequence of events, understand character,
motivations and grasp thestructure of stories, meaning
that beginning, middle and anend.
This helps develop theircomprehension skills, which are
essential for reading andunderstanding text later,
(15:37):
develop their comprehensionskills, which are essential for
reading and understanding textlater.
Conversations with caregiversalso play an important role by
introducing again new words,encouraging children to express
their thoughts and modelingcorrect sentence structure.
When they're having thatback-and-forth dialogue,
children learn how languageworks.
They learn about grammar andsyntax and how to use words to
(15:57):
communicate ideas.
Storytelling and conversationsencourage children to think
critically and expand theirvocabulary, both of which are
foundational for reading andwriting.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, that's great.
Next up, we're going to talkabout concepts about kind of
print.
What are the essential conceptsabout print that children
should learn before they startreading?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
So probably the most important thing they need to
learn first is that print hasmeaning, and then words on a
page actually reflect orrepresent spoken language.
Children learn to recognize thedirectionality of print, so
understanding that we read fromleft to right and from the top
to the bottom of the page.
(16:40):
They also become familiar withthe idea that books have a title
, an author, an illustrator, andthat these elements convey
specific information about thestory.
Also, children begin tounderstand that spaces between
words separate individual wordsand that letters, when combined,
form words with specificmeanings.
(17:02):
They also start to recognizeletters in their names, as well
as the concept that uppercaseand lowercase letters are
different, but both form thepart of written language.
These early understandings helpchildren make sense of written
text, preparing them to make theconnection between spoken and
written word, which is essentialfor learning to read.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
So how can parents and educators create a
print-rich environment tosupport early literacy?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
We want to surround children with a variety of
written materials that are bothaccessible and engaging.
Of written materials that areboth accessible and engaging,
this can include labelingobjects around the house with
simple words door, table,refrigerator to help children
make that connection betweenwords and the items they
represent.
Having books, magazines and,dare I say, old school
(17:51):
newspapers readily availableencourages children to explore
printed text in a natural way.
Encourages children to exploreprinted text in a natural way.
Interactive materials likemagnets, alphabet charts or
writing stations with crayonsand paper provide opportunities
for children to experiment withwriting and letter recognition.
Caregivers can also engagechildren in daily reading
(18:12):
routines, such as reading booksaloud together or sharing
stories that include familiarwords and phrases.
Writing notes, writing lists ormessages to children and
involving them in these taskshelps reinforce the idea that
writing is a meaningful way tocommunicate.
And then, in this day oftexting, I think it's more
important than ever that we getback to doing some of this with
(18:34):
our younger children.
So by consistently surroundingchildren with print in their
daily lives, caregivers providethem with opportunities to
observe, interact with andengage in literacy activities.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Sounds like there's a lot of different options for
parents when they're just tryingto create that environment.
So thank you for sharing those.
Yeah, last but not least, we'reto talk about early writing
skills.
This is our fifth earlyliteracy skill that we wanted to
cover today.
So what are some key milestonesin early writing development
(19:07):
that parents should look for?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Sure.
So the first thing we thinkabout when it comes to writing
skills is that intentionalscribbling, and this starts to
come around two to three yearsof age.
With that intentionalscribbling, and this starts to
come around two to three yearsof age, at this early stage,
children are experimenting withholding writing tools, just
making random marks or scribbles, and, while they don't yet form
letters or words, this is thefoundation for later writing
(19:30):
skills.
Next we think about childrenthat are about three to four
years old.
We call this the pre-writingand letter-like forms.
Children begin to draw shapesor make letter-like symbols that
resemble actual letters.
They may start to recognizesome letters and make attempts
to write their name or other,even simple words.
Then, when we get to about fourto five years old, we think
(19:53):
about letter recognition andwriting Children.
At this stage they canrecognize and name letters of
the alphabet.
They start to write simplewords, usually using phonetic
spelling as opposed totraditional spelling, and they
may also begin to write theirnames with more accuracy.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So how can children be encouraged to express
themselves through writing at anearly age?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
You can start by providing opportunities for
creative expression throughactivities like drawing,
coloring and doodling.
Again, these lay the foundationfor those later writing skills.
Be sure to protect yoursurfaces and offer
developmentally appropriatematerials so that these
experiences can be stress-freefor you and the child.
Toddlers are going to needgiant pieces of paper to be able
(20:37):
to move their whole arm to makemarks on the paper.
One of my favorite writingactivities with toddlers is to
give them a bucket of water anda paintbrush or a jumbo sidewalk
chalk and just let them draw onthe sidewalk or the side of the
building.
As children grow and they havemore motor control, they can
work on smaller canvases.
Likewise, be sure toddlers areusing washable and non-toxic
(21:00):
materials.
Offer a variety of writing toolscrayons, markers, chalk to
spark their interest and makewriting feel exciting.
You want to engage ininteractive reading sessions and
encourage them to write bydrawing pictures about the
stories or the characters.
Make writing a part of dailylife.
Writing simple notes and liststogether is important.
(21:21):
As children grow, praise theirefforts and celebrate small
achievements like forming theirfirst letter or writing their
name.
Make writing positive,enjoyable and incorporated into
your daily routines.
That way you can foster a lovefor writing early on.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Well, I love that you're mentioning to really just
find ways to work into yourdaily routines.
I remember when my kiddos werelittle, one of the first kind of
I guess you know early writingthing that we would do is I
would have them help me writethe grocery list.
It was something that you knowand theirs would obviously look
very different, but they justthey saw me doing it and they
(21:58):
wanted to help, and so, doingside by side, that was one
little thing that we used to do.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, and that's such a great point because again, in
this day of technology andmaking our lives easier,
everything becomes digital rightand we kind of lose that art of
actually modeling for ourchildren, writing things on
paper.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, it's changed so much.
It's so funny.
My son he recently did a fieldtrip to like a one room
schoolhouse and one of theactivities that they did that
day was they wrote in cursive.
And it's just so interestingbecause they're not taught
cursive anymore and we grew updoing cursive and so you can see
the changes in writing alreadyand it'll be interesting to see
(22:40):
what this, what this looks like,even five to 10 years from now.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yes, Just to get us back on track.
What role does play have indeveloping early literacy skills
?
We talk about play a lot inearly childhood.
How can it be incorporated intolearning these early writing
skills?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
So when we think about early writing, what does
that entail?
So children have to have somesmall motor skills and some
strength in their hands and intheir fingers.
So activities like playing withclay or dough, manipulating
buttons and zippers and snaps,tearing paper, manipulating
collage materials or using thosesafety scissors can help
(23:20):
strengthen those hand musclesand prepare children for holding
a pencil later on.
Pretend play, such as playingoffice or store, provides
opportunities for children tomake lists and signs and pretend
notes which mimic real-lifewriting tasks.
Drawing and coloring, often apart of imaginative play, allow
children to experiment withshapes and letters.
(23:41):
Building that foundation forwriting and then offering things
like chalk and markers andpaper during playtime allows
children to freely explorewriting and letter formation.
Children really learn throughplay, as we were just talking
about.
They develop the motor skills,but also gain confidence and a
sense of purpose and theirability to communicate through
writing.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I love all those ideas.
We just know that kids learnthrough play, so these are great
ways to support those earlyliteracy skills.
Well, I think we coveredeverything that we wanted today
about those five key earlyliteracy skills.
Thank you so much, lynn.
This is such great information.
If you're listening, I hope youenjoy this podcast and please
tune into Early Childhood On theGo again.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me and letting me
talk about one of my favoritethings.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Thanks for listening to the Early Childhood On the Go
podcast from the EarlyChildhood Center team at Indiana
University.
Learn more at iidcindianaeduslash ecc.
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