Building Language and Literacy Skills in Infants, Toddlers & Twos

Inside this page: Vocabulary and Language | Phonological Awareness | Enjoying Books and Stories | Exploring Writing | How You Can Promote Language and Literacy Learning

What children learn in the first three years of life years and how they learn it form the foundation for successful lifelong learning. As an infant/toddler teacher, you have the opportunity to help ensure that this foundation is sturdy and strong. School readiness begins in infancy.

Language and literacy involves four interrelated skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. These skills are essential for children's success in school and in life. The greatest opportunity to build strong language and literacy skills is in the first five years of life. A baby's brain is primed for acquiring language. When they are around caring and responsive adults who talk with them, engage them in conversations, read to them every day, and teach them songs and rhymes, they are eager to engage with people and communicate. Because infants, toddlers, and twos are so motivated to communicate, you can take advantage of this opportunity to truly make a difference that will last a lifetime.

Fortunately, it is not hard to provide the rich opportunities infants, toddlers, and twos need to acquire language and the building blocks of literacy. It does, however, require being intentional about what you do every day, all day. The building blocks for language and literacy include experiences that enable young children to acquire vocabulary and language, hear the different sounds and rhythms of language, enjoy books and stories, and explore writing.

Vocabulary and Language

One of the greatest achievements in the first three years of life is the development of oral language--the ability to understand the spoken words  (receptive language) and to put ideas and feelings into words to communicate with others (expressive language). A child with a good vocabulary and language skills can engage in conversations, share ideas, ask questions, and work through problems.

From the time they utter their first word until they are three, children learn words and how to put them together at an astounding rate. All children have this potential, but only those who are around caring and responsive adults who talk to them, label and describe experiences and objects, and engage them in conversations acquire language skills. Why is this important? Because research shows that those children who have good oral language skills, who know and use a lot of words are most likely to become successful readers (Dickinson et. al., 2003; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). Reading, after all, is getting meaning from the printed word. The more words a child knows, the more he understands when someone reads to him, and later when he learns to read himself.

There was a time when people felt there wasn't any need to talk to babies because they wouldn't understand anyway. We now know that from birth, adults should literally bathe infants, toddlers and twos in language, using every opportunity to talk to them, describe things, reassure them, and sing to them.

Some children come from homes (and programs) where they hear 215,000 words every week (around 30,700 words a day). Compare that with infants, toddlers, and twos who hear only 62,000 words each week (around 8,800 words a day).^[1] By age three, the difference in the vocabularies and language use in these two groups of children is tremendous. Children who have rich language and literacy experiences have twice the vocabulary of children who do not. And researchers have found that language experiences in the first three years are one of the most reliable ways to predict reading ability by third grade.^[2] Once children fall behind, it is very hard for them to catch up. In school, they fall further and further behind. But you can make sure that the infants and toddlers in your care hear and learn to use lots of language.

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The Sounds and Rhythms of Language (Phonological Awareness)

The ability to hear and distinguish the sounds and rhythms of language is another very important skill for reading. During the preschool years, most children develop phonological awareness--the ability to hear the different sounds in spoken language. They notice rhyming words in songs, poems, finger plays, and stories. They enjoy playing word games like "banana-fana-fo-fana."  Preschoolers can hear and clap the syllables in their names: Son-ya; Ty-rone. And they notice that some words start with the same sound: cat and cake; Denise and Danny.

Long before they become preschoolers, young children who are around adults who talk to them and sing to them begin to tune into the sounds and rhythms of the language they hear. Every language has its own set of sounds that are used to form words. These sounds are called phonemes. Whatever sounds infants hear, those are the sounds they learn. By around six months of age, infants have learned to babble and repeat the sounds that make up their language: ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba. They soon lose the ability to hear and use the sounds of other languages, the ones they never hear.

Infants and toddlers can develop sound awareness, the first step in phonological awareness. Newborns have the ability to distinguish their mother's and father's voices from other voices or noises they hear around them. You may have noticed that young infants are particularly intrigued by a certain type of speech called parentese. When you talk slowly, in a high pitched, sing song voice, face to face with an infant, he is much more likely to pay attention to you, long before he understands what you are saying. You may feel a bit silly talking this way, but it is very effective in getting infants to focus on you and listen to what you say.

Everyday experiences help infants, toddlers, and twos develop sound awareness--the ability to recognize and notice different sounds. When you point out sounds they notice ("You hear a dog barking outside. It sounds like woof, woof."), play music and dance with children to the beat, sing songs, repeat nursery rhymes, and do finger plays, you are helping infants and toddlers become aware of the sounds and rhythms of their language. When you make these kinds of experiences a part of your everyday work with young children, you will see them developing this very important reading skill.

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Enjoying Books and Stories

Reading books and sharing your pleasure in language and stories is one of the most important gifts you can give infants, toddlers, and twos. Children who are regularly read to develop a foundation for literacy, and are motivated to read more--key ingredients for success in school. Children who enjoy being read to develop a love for books that will last throughout their lives, enriching their experiences and stretching their imaginations.

It is never too early to bring books into a baby's life. Long before infants can focus their eyes on the pictures, turn the pages, and understand the words you are saying, they can begin to associate books with the safe and loving feelings they have as you hold them on your lap and share a book. And this is one of the most important reasons to read and tell stories to infants, toddlers, and twos--so they come to love books and are motivated to want to learn to read.

Sharing books with infants, toddlers, and twos also builds many important literacy skills.

Vocabulary and language
Children learn new words as you share stories about a variety of objects, actions, events, and places; link items in books with events and objects in children's lives; and say words from books during daily routines. Books contain rare words, and more complex sentences than the conversational language we use in daily life. The descriptive language in books--using adjectives, adverbs, and synonyms for familiar words--helps stretch toddlers' language. Vocabulary and background knowledge are essential for children's later comprehension of their school texts.

How print works
Toddlers and twos begin to learn what print is all about when you point out words and letters, run your finger under print, and talk about what you are doing, (e.g., let's turn to the next page). They realize that the squiggles on a page are related to the words and pictures on the page, and that books are read front to back, one page at a time.

Letters and words
Older toddlers and twos are beginning to recognize some letters--usually the first letter in their names as well as letters from environmental print, such as the M in McDonald's or the S in a stop sign. They may enjoy finding these letters in simple alphabet books, and notice if you point out familiar letters as you are reading a story.

Comprehension
This refers to the ability to make sense of what is heard or read. Infants take first steps toward developing comprehension when they point to pictures in a book, as do toddlers when they relate events in a story to something in their own lives, or retell a familiar story.

Understanding books and other texts
As you read stories to infants, toddlers, and twos, they become aware that stories have beginnings and endings, "once upon a time" starts some stories, and "they lived happily ever after" signals the end of some stories.

Phonological awareness
The types of books you read to children help them become aware of the sounds of language, as discussed in the previous section.

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Exploring Writing

Reading and writing go together. A group of letters is a symbol for a word, just as a picture is a symbol for or representation of something. Long before children can recognize letters and read or write letters and words, they have to understand that something can represent something else (e.g., a picture of a banana can represent a real banana; a block can stand for a car; the big golden arches mean McDonalds).

Children learn about writing if they see print in their environment and see you writing for different reasons. Have you ever noticed that mobile infants and toddlers are fascinated when they see you write? Because you are so important to them, they want to imitate what you do and writing is no exception. At first, they have no idea what you are doing, they simply notice that you are taking an object, moving it across a piece of paper, and it leaves a mark; surprise! They want to do it too!

Infants, toddlers, and twos can begin to learn about and experiment with writing if they see symbols and letters in their environment and you give them access to drawing, painting, and writing tools.

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How You Can Promote Language and Literacy Learning

The behaviors described above are ones you will see if you offer the infants, toddlers, and twos in your care the kinds of rich experiences and materials that build their language and literacy skills. Along with your consistent, loving, and responsive care, building their language and literacy skills is one of the greatest and most lasting gifts you can give them.

The chart below summarizes what you can do and say to help every child develop good vocabulary and language skills, learn to play with the sounds and rhythms of language, enjoy stories and books, and experiment with writing.