Emergent Literacy for the Infant Classroom

Room to Grow blogger T. Wright offers a great list of activities you can complete with your infant children or students to foster important literacy concepts and connections that will lay the foundation for these skills later in life. For a full listing be sure to visit her blog - here are a few highlights!

Talk

Infants begin to understand sound and language long before they say their first word. At an early age they can distinguish speech from other sounds and even recognize the voices of the significant adults in their life. As you talk to your child or student about the world around them or describe for them the day's activities they begin to identify and catalog the distinct sound "building blocks" of language. Singing

Ever wonder why perfectly rational adults suddenly revert to "baby talk" when in the presence of an infant or small child? While infants do respond to regular speech patterns, saying the exact same phrases in a sing-song lyrical manner can actually enhance phonological connections.

Quiet Time

Overstimulation does little to help infants learn and grow. Like everyone else, their brain needs periods of rest in order to make sense of the information they've encountered and for learning to fully take place.

Room to Grow: Making Early Childhood Count!: 50 Literacy Activities for Babies

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