Ideas to promote Literacy Skills:

Literacy is often defined as an individual's ability to speak, read and write.

•·        Read aloud every day. Use varying pitch and intonation.

•·        Point to each word as you read. Stress repeated phrases and encourage your child to fill in the word(s). For example,                 "The wheels on the bus go 'round and ___."

•·        Encourage your child to draw pictures. Ask him/her questions about the pictures and have him/her tell you a story that  goes along with their pictures.

•·        While in the car, listen to books on tape and a variety of nursery rhyme songs.

•·        Point out letters on buildings, signs, etc.

•·        Play alphabet games. Sing the ABC song with your child. Have your child find the letters in his/her name in books, newspaper, magazines, cereal boxes, etc.

•·        Read rhyming books. Then have your child fill in blanks to the rhymes. For example, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a ____."

•·        As your child becomes more familiar with rhymes, encourage him/her to make up their own rhymes and songs.

•·        Sound matching activities: ask your child to identify sounds in words. For example, "Which two words start with the same sound: bat, dog, ball?"

•·        Blending games: Slowly say aloud each sound of a word. Ask your child to blend the sounds together to form the word. For example, s-a-t/sat.

•·        Rhyming games: Ask your child to identify words that sound the same. For example, pat-ball-hat. When your child becomes more familiar with rhymes have him/her give a word that rhymes with another word. For example, "Tell me a word that rhymes with hot."

•·        Sound-Letter recognition: You can spell words that are interesting to him/her. You can spell rhyming words, toys that they enjoy.

Pam Heller, M.A., CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist