Tips for Boosting Literacy Development in Young Learners
There are so many great research-based tips online to help encourage literacy development in young children. Here we have put together a few of our favorites. They can be used at home by parents or in the classroom during different lessons and throughout the day.
- Provide the definition for new vocabulary words and use them often. Children will learn their meaning and begin to use them on their own.
- Read from books with large print so children can follow along with you.
- Point to pictures and read with expression. This helps children understand the meaning behind the words.
- Point out letters and words on the page and indicate reading from left to right to help develop concepts of print.
- Ask open-ended questions about the characters and events taking place in the story. This builds a meaningful understanding of the language, and children begin making connections between the text they are reading/hearing and their own individual lives.
- Incorporate singing into your day or lesson, which helps children with phonemic awareness (how the sounds in words work).
- Encourage participation by providing lots of positive feedback and praise, which also boosts self confidence.
- Serve as a model for your children or students. Model correct pronunciation, demonstrate correct intonation and expression (for example, your voice goes up when you ask a question), and show children how enjoyable reading can be by reading yourself and discussing interesting topics you read.
You can find these tips built right into the GrapeSEED program and demonstrated as part of the training. Teachers already using GrapeSEED can check your Teacher Resource manual to review these and other helpful tips.
Just remember what is most important of all: to spend time reading with your children as often as you can, helping them develop a lifelong love for reading and learning.
Do you have additional tips to share? Let us know on the GrapeSEED Facebook page.