More than just storybooks: Promoting emergent literacy skills in the home

Abstract

The home environment provides children with their first literacy experiences. Parents are thus well placed to facilitate the development of emergent literacy skills in their children before formal reading and writing begins at school. These emergent literacy skills include print awareness, motivation to explore print, shaping and writing skills, alphabet knowledge, and phonological awareness; the latter two being the strongest predictors of future reading ability (Adams 1990). Parents would benefit greatly from an evidenced-based approach to the use of methods that promote emergent literacy skills in their pre-school aged children. In the present article, relevant research is considered for literacy activities that focused on the interaction between the parent and child.