40% of students across the nation cannot read at a basic level. Pre-reading skills, literacy, and language development should be supported as early as infancy! In today’s episode, we dive into the importance of literacy and language development from infancy to toddlerhood. We also chat about how these skills can impact later reading success.
Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the toddlers we treat. Understanding pre-reading skills prepares toddlers for later success while encouraging language development and communication.
The Science of Reading uses evidence-based research to explain how children learn to read, write, and spell. This evidence-based research comes from diverse sources including education, linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience. It’s based on 5 big ideas:
- Phonemic awareness
- Phonics
- Fluency
- Vocabulary
- Comprehension
When we ask parents questions about their child’s vocabulary- they usually default to topics such as “they don’t know all their shapes” or “he can sing the ABCs!” while those 2 things are awesome- here’s a secret… They won’t create good communication, and that’s not all that a child will need to know to learn to read.
We encourage pre-reading skills by exposing toddlers to print and books, the different sounds in spoken language, and reading books aloud.
Everything you should already be doing in speech therapy for toddlers.
