L izzi O gle – T remont D istrict Li brary 1 Early Literacy Tip Tuesday August 18 th – The Five Practices Hi! Welcome to Early Literacy Tip Tuesdays. I’m Miss Lizzi, the Youth Services Director at Tremont District Library. Early Literacy is what children learn about reading and writing, before they are actually able to read and write. “Literacy skills” are different for each developmental age of a child. Saroj Ghoting, an Early Literacy Research Consultant, uses The Five Practices to describe Early Literacy skills and exercises for children from birth to school age. Throughout this video series, we’ll be looking at each of the Five Practices a little closer and learn how we can better prepare our children for life - long literacy. Talkin g is the first of the Five Practices and the first Early Literacy skill your child will learn. Language and gesture s that a parent uses with their child helps to grow the child’s vocabulary before they are even able to talk. The second practice is Singin g . Like Talking, Singing introduces new vocabulary to a child. While singing may seem a lot like the Talking practic e, Ghoting explains that Singing is linked with phonological awareness in a child’s vocabulary. Hearing uncommon words in songs or nursery rhymes, and hearing words broken down into syllables helps a child learn the sounds of their language and grow their vocabulary. The next practice is probably one you already know: Readin g . Reading aloud to your child is not only a great bonding experience but also offers a plethora of Early Literacy skills. Alphabetic awareness, early reading skills, and building vocab ulary are just a few examples. The fourth practice is one that we may not necessarily associate with children under the age of 5: Writin g . Think about it, writing is not easy! Before we can write, we must develop fine motor skills, a knowledge of the alph abet and a vocabulary, and ways to express what we are feeling. But young children first start to develop their writing L izzi O gle – T remont D istrict Li brary 2 skills when they learn to hold a drawing utensil and begin making lines, circles, or chaotic scribbles. Putting ideas onto paper is a ne w concept for children and as they develop their control over their scribbling, and learn how to write a few letters of the alphabet we are seeing Early Literacy skills develop in real time. The last practice is so important for so many reasons: Pla y . Pla ying is how a child learns. Play helps to develop a child’s social skills, imagination and storytelling skills, and motor skills. Knowing the Five Practices helps us as parents know how different activities are helping our children’s Early Litera cy skills develop. Come back for videos each Tuesday to learn more about Early Literacy skills, get book recommendations for both parents and kids, and learn new ways to help develop your child’s literacy skills as they grow. If you want to learn more abo ut the Five Practices, I recommend checking out Ghoting’s book , Storytimes For Everyone , her website earlylit.net , or everychildreadytoread.org