Supporting Early Literacy: Fun Ways to Introduce Reading to Your Child

Phonics. Fluency. Vocabulary. These are a few of the inner workings of the core skills involved in reading. We practice them every day — whether we’re checking texts or referencing a recipe for dinner — and aren’t naturally aware of them until we have to pass them on to our little ones.

Teaching literacy to their children is a lot of pressure and can be daunting for a lot of parents. But with educational apps on your smart devices and some fun tricks, there are actually fun ways to introduce reading to your child. Keep reading to learn what they are!

Build phonemic skills

This is a classic and effective approach to introducing reading to your child and supporting early literacy. Children’s songs and nursery rhymes can teach your child how to build their phonemic awareness by sounding out words and sounds. You’ll notice that many of these children’s songs and nursery rhymes feature clapping or snapping. Clapping, snapping, and singing rhythmically help your little ones develop their awareness of syllables, making it easier for them to sound out words in the future.

Surround them with words and letters

Surrounding your little ones with words and letters is a passive yet effective way of introducing reading to your child. When they can see printed words and letters on books or signs or charts, they’re able to wrap their heads around reading faster when they encounter them in books, on apps, or on TV.

When you and your little one are out in the world, try to see if you can point out signs, letters, or words and see if they can make some connections!

Get on the apps 

Early literacy doesn’t have to be boring or painful. Most of us can’t pinpoint the moment we learned how to sound out our first word or read out our sentence because we probably learned through a natural method in a natural setting.  

Technology has quickly become a part of our natural settings and can help you ease your little one into literacy and reading comprehension. Many educational apps and sites feature a levelled reading approach, ensuring that your little one continues to improve and is rewarded and motivated to keep reading. 

For more information on apps to help introduce your little one to reading, check out our blog post, Educational Apps and Resources: Harnessing Technology for Child Development.  

Read together as often as you can

Plain and simple. We all have our favourite childhood books that we get a little excited about when we see them in the bookstore as adults. Reading to your little one encourages their curiosity and sparks their imagination.  

Make sure you ask your little one questions about the stories, whether those questions are about the pictures or the words (or both). Choose books that align with your child’s interests to build a natural love of reading. 

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Kinder Buddies Oakville Child Care is a Quality First Daycare and Infant Care facility in Oakville, Ontario. We take care of children from the age of 6 weeks to 5 1/2 providing nutritious meals and fun activities all day long.