Lots of people have heard of phonics and indeed there has been a heavy focus on them in schools for years, and then not so much of a focus as we looked at whole language approaches, and then back again to a phonics-intensive focus (don’t you just love the education pendulum?).

But before phonemic awareness can develop, or at least before it can develop effectively, a child has to have a grasp on phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, differentiate, and manipulate individual units of sound (or phonemes). This includes tasks like segmenting a word (“cat” is “c-a-t”), blending a word (“caaaatttttt”… “cat”!), making substitutions (Say “sat” with an /m/ sound instead of /s/… “mat”!), deletions (say “and” without the /d/ sound… “an”!) playing with onset and rime (cl-ap) and finally rhyming – both identifying rhyming words and creating their own.

Most children develop these skills naturally, especially when exposed to a rich environment of talk, music, and literacy from infancy through the preschool years. However, some children do not, either because they are going to have learning needs that require more explicit instruction in these skills, or they lacked the rich early learning environment so necessary for later literacy success.

Whatever the case, we know that children who struggle with phonics may actually first have a deficit in phonemic awareness, and that needs to be addressed before phonological awareness and reading can really thrive.

For the most part, you won’t need to teach phonemic awareness explicitly, but you will want to integrate lots of play with sound and words into your daily activities. It doesn’t have to involve print, in fact, it often shouldn’t, since it is essentially children’s auditory processing you are focusing on here. There are lots of other chances for great print experiences, and of course you should go for those too!

If you teach Kindergarten or even first or second grade, be on the lookout for those struggling early readers and make sure to get a formal check on those phonemic skills. Sometimes all it takes is a little extra attention in this area and kids begin to thrive with reading!

What sort of fun activities do you use that invite children to play with phonemic awareness?

One of the most important parts of a child’s early literacy experience actually has nothing to do with books or print at all. Instead, it is all about their early language experiences centering around talk – both being talked to (not at!) and later, talking back.

Researchers Betty M. Hart and Todd R. Risley focus on this idea in their book “Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children“. They discovered that the most important predictor for a child’s language acquisition was how much language they heard on a daily basis from their caregivers (in the case of this study, the parents). The amount of spoken language heard by children had a direct impact on both the quantity and quality of their spoken vocabulary. A strong oral vocabulary lays a strong foundation for a quality early literacy experience.

So talk to the children in your care, and talk a lot! Again, I stress talking to kids, meaning you keep up a running commentary and dialogue going, even before the child can really talk back (yes, sometimes you might feel like you are talking yourself silly!). But talking to kids using descriptive words, and praise, and positive interaction is infinitely important. Sure, sometimes we have to talk at our kids, giving directions, managing behavior and routine, etc. But make sure a vast majority of what your kids hear is positive and interactive.

Chat about what you are doing as you give a bath, make dinner, take a walk, etc. Observe that that car over there is red and that the slide at the playground is blue and twisty. Anything, really! Keep up a chatter of narration about your day, and engage your child in even the smallest task and routine. A language rich environment paves the way for a successful literacy later in life (but only a few short years away!) in very powerful ways.

What are some ways you can think of to engage a child in early oral language experiences?

The following post is from Colleen Brunetti … our Early Literacy Expert. She will be doing a series of posts on early literacy for preschoolers. Since this ties in so nicely with our recent Book Study Blog party of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2011), I’ll interject a couple of quotes from the book along the way! –Laura

Choosing high quality children’s literature is an important part of inviting your child into the world of books, and for fostering a love of literacy. But what exactly is “quality children’s literature”? Google the phrase and you come up with a list of hits that are non-specific, and very much based on opinion. So, in that spirit, here’s my opinion! My top 5 tips for choosing quality children’s literature.

1) Choose something with engaging pictures: Illustrations very much carry the story, especially in the early years. Brightly colored illustrations are great, but don’t discount black and white. Touchable pictures (scratchy cardboard box, or a soft kitty) for the very young are very engaging, as are pictures of real children. There’s nothing babies like better than looking at pictures of other babies!

“Select informational texts that have large, clear pictures and focus on familiar topics that children can understand.” (Fountas & Pinnell, “Literacy Beginnings”, 2011)

2) Look for stories with simple prose: Less is more in the early years, and you can go to reading longer and longer stories as your child indicates they are ready (i.e.: can sit through more than a page or two!). Enjoy the time lost in words together. It’s okay if children don’t sit through a whole story at first. Everything in time.

3) Look for rhyming stories, or writing with a rhythm to it: Lots of exposure to rhythm and rhyme is excellent for young children. It develops early phonemic awareness skills (a child’s ability to hear and distinguish units of sound), which are key to later reading success. We’ll talk more about that in a future blog.

“When children hear poems and rhymes, they start to notice the words that sound alike at the end. Recognizing rhyme is one of the first signs of phonemic awareness.” (Fountas & Pinnell, “Literacy Beginnings”, 2011)

4) Don’t forget the classics and look for award winners: There’s a reason some books have stood the test of time. Certain characters have captured children’s hearts and continue to charm the generations. Think titles like “Goodnight Moon” or “Where the Wild Things Are”, for example. There are also wonderful awards out there that can help you choose some great books. Look for past Caldecott winners (for illustrations), the Newbury Award for distinguished children’s literature, or the Nutmeg Book Award for Connecticut’s very own awards. (CheckHERE for a list of awards in other states too!)

5) Avoid the crummy stuff: Now this item is probably left more to opinion than any other. What is bad children’s literature? Consider things like appropriate content, underlying messages, good role models, diversity… pick things that are important to your own social values and consider if they are reflected in the books you share with your children. Personally, I also don’t care for books that are a weak synopsis of things like movies. Pick up a Disney book re-telling one of their classic movies and see what I mean. The descriptions and dialogue are weak, the pictures un-original and computer generated. Personally, I’d rather invite my child into a world of books where his own imagination takes hold, and not the pre-conceived images he’s already seen on screen.

How about you? What makes for good (or bad) children’s literature in your opinion? What are some of your favorite titles and why?