Pre-Literacy Skills
- California Scottish Rite
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel is considered a literary genius, a timeless word savant who literally provided a pre-literacy blueprint for generations of toddlers to understand language, vocabulary development and, yes, the art of storytelling.
And yet, Geisel would have been the first to tell you those wordsmith skills and an ear for the rhyme of the absurd came via a generous assist from another source.
His mother, Henrietta.
From their Springfield, Massachusetts home, which featured a Mulberry Street that Geisel would later make famous in his first children’s book: And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street, Henrietta would read to the young Geisel and his sister, Nettie, in a rhythmic, rhyming fashion that often ventured into the absurd and nonsensical.
That stuck with the young Geisel, who took those early reading sessions with his mother and never forgot them. Neither have generations of parents and children, who relished reading such Geisel/Seuss classics as The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and numerous others.
There is a story behind the story of how Geisel became the beloved Dr. Seuss that helps explain the importance of pre-literacy education. Geisel read a 1954 Life Magazine story chronicling a literacy problem among schoolchildren who had trouble reading. The reason? Children’s books weren’t engaging.
Remembering back to his days listening to his mother read funny rhymes to him, Geisel decided to write interesting, easy-to-read books with simple, rhyming words and that engaging use of rhythm and repetition that sticks with adults years after they’ve put down The Cat in the Hat for the last time..
And just like that, The Dr. was in.
Through his more than 40 books, Geisel was a pioneer in developing pre-literacy skills in children. But what are those skills and how do parents and teachers support them?
Children begin learning language from the day they arrive into the world. As they develop, children begin to use speech and language to express themselves and to communicate with others. Through that early development period, children learn skills that helps build their speech and language. That’s known as emergent literacy—the pre-literacy phase of speech and language development.
6 KEY SKILLS TO PRE-LITERACY DEVELOPMENT:
There are six key skills associated with pre-literacy development:
Print Awareness.
This is the understanding that print carries meaning. It’s also the understanding how books work: that you turn pages and read the words from left to right and top to bottom
Print Motivation.
This is a fancy term for making reading fun and engaging. That fosters a lifelong passion for reading and enjoying books.
Letter Knowledge.
Here’s where we find the dawn of a child’s understanding about reading. Letter knowledge is the ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet and understand that each letter has a specific name and sound.
Narrative Skills.
How well can a child tell a story, along with how well then know the sequence of events in that story and how well they can predict what might happen next.
Vocabulary.
Self-explanatory. What is a child’s knowledge of words and their meanings?
Phonological Awareness.
After a child begins to master letter knowledge, this is the next phase on their reading educational journey. Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words. When children clap out syllables and rhyme, they’re engaging in phonological awareness.
In turn, pre-literacy skills can be broken down into two categories: meaning-related skills and code-related skills.
Meaning-related skills include vocabulary, conversation and story comprehension.
Vocabulary is self-explanatory, the development of language and meaning. The more words a child knows, the easier it is for them to learn more words and the easier it is for them to understand meaning from the stories they read. Put more books in a child’s hand early and they’ll adapt easier once they start reading more complex books in school.
Conversation helps a child build that knowledge to build new connections and relationships. When a child talks about what they learned in a book or in a picture, it helps them understand the stories they will eventually read on their own.
Story comprehension is important because it is where a child understands what is happening in a book, why it’s happening and why the characters act, speak and feel the way they do. When a child grasps story comprehension, they begin to understand the larger meaning of a book.
Code-related skills are print knowledge (mentioned above under “print awareness”) and sound awareness, which was mentioned above under phonological awareness.
So how do parents and teachers support pre-literacy skills? It’s easier than you may think, because it’s probably all the things you’re already doing.
Read.
Reading to your child is one of the best development methods for vocabulary, language and social skills. Further this along by asking questions as you read, pointing to pictures and talking about the story.
Talk.
Another great—and simple—way to develop language skills and vocabulary. Pointing out objects, such as “There’s the Cat in the Hat,” or “Do you see the fire engine?” helps them understand that objects have names.
Sing.
As you read to your child, how often did you find yourself putting Dr. Seuss’ words into song? Rhyming games and songs help children understand the sounds that make up words.
Play.
Pre-literacy development takes on many forms and play may not come to immediate mind, but it’s an important action. When you play with your child, for example, with Legos or acting out a story they read, you help them understand the connection between words on a page and the practical meaning of those words.
Print exploration.
You can do this nearly everywhere, from the kitchen table to the supermarket to road trips in the car. Pointing out words and letters on signs, boxes, buildings and other locations helps build print awareness. Eventually, children will be able to point to a sign and know it says, “Stop.”
The Rite Care Childhood Language Center has the skills and knowledge to help you and your child build pre-literacy skills that will carry them into a lifetime of reading and—more importantly—reading enjoyment.
Just like the good Dr. Seuss ordered.
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