Emergent readers are children from birth to 5 or 6 years of age who are beginning to make the speech-to-print match. This is the time in which children have not received or are just beginning to receive formal instruction on how to read, write, or spell. They are learning letter names, letter sounds, and are experimenting with letter production. Emergent readers are engaging in preliteracy activities with caregivers, leaning important concepts about print like how to handle a book, identifying the front and back covers, turning pages from left to read, and reading lines from top to bottom. They often memorize their favorite stories and present expressive "readings" of said stories to family and friends. Emergent readers have not yet developed concept of word, which is a fancy way of saying that they have not yet identified word boundaries.
You can assist your emergent reader with:
*It is often easiest and the least overwhelming to start with the letter's in your child's first name.
- Letter Names (singing the alphabet song and alternative alphabet songs; playing with foam letters in the bathtub or alphabet blocks)
- Letter Sounds (See my post regarding the alternative alphabet song "The A Says /a/.")
- Letter Production/ Formation (use play-doh, clay, chalk, dry-erase boards, magnadoodles, etch-a-sketch, waterdoodle, or any other method to encourage your child to play with forming letters.)
- Concepts of Print:
- Front and Back covers of a book
- Illustrations vs. words
- Holding a book right-side-up
- turning pages from left to right gently using the corner of a page
- Oral Language:
- Rhyming (Nursery Rhymes, songs, games)
- Storytelling
- Vocabulary (rereading familiar stories, explaining words to children, having rich conversations with children)
Here's a picture of my emergent reader! :)
