Skills Needed for Children Literacy Development

Some children learn how to read, write, communicate, and socialise quickly while others struggle, and that’s okay. Early literacy development varies from child to child, so all children will progress at different rates.

Different skills are needed for children’s literacy competence. Take a look at some of the essential literacy skills that children need to develop to succeed in their learning journey. 

Phonemic Awareness
The English alphabetic writing system is made up of 26 letters. However, there are almost two times more sound units (phonemes) for these letters. The letters in words represent different sounds that dictate how each word should be pronounced. Without this awareness, children can’t read and pronounce new words correctly. 

Phonemes aren’t inherently obvious, so they must be taught. There are many different approaches to impart phonemic awareness skills in children. These include the following:

• Phoneme segmentation – involves asking children to break out a word into separate sounds. For example, “What are all the sounds you hear in bat? /b/ /a/ /t/
• Phoneme isolation – involves asking learners to isolate phonemes. For example, “What is the last sound in book?” /k/
• Phoneme blending – involves asking students to use different sounds to form a word. For example, [b-e-e-f] for beef.
• Phoneme identity – involves asking readers to identify common sounds in a set of words. For example, “Reveal the common sound in bug, bat, and ball.”

Even though phonemic awareness is an auditory skill, it helps kids read and articulate print with precision.
 
Our GraphoGame literacy learning app for children was designed specifically to facilitate children phonemic awareness at home or school. In other words, GraphoGame helps children to connect written language segments with the corresponding speech sounds.

Awareness of Print
Print is ubiquitous. It can be seen in alphabet books and storybooks, on signs and billboards, and in magazines, and newspapers. With that said, many children are likely to come across it before starting school. 

Children’s level of print awareness is a very strong predictor of their future reading achievement. Children with an awareness of print understand that written communication is related to oral communication. They see that, like verbal communication, printed language carries meaning. Children who lack print awareness may not become effective readers. 

Vocabulary
Imagine relying on a few words to communicate an idea. Whether spoken or written, your communication won’t be engaging or persuasive. 

Children need to build a strong vocabulary for school, work readiness, and general life skills. They need to constantly learn new words so they can have a rich vocabulary that will help them communicate better and make a positive impression on others.
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Kids learn the first words from their parents and other older household members. Hence, families play an important role in children’s performance of vocabulary.

Spelling
Many children start to speak before they go to school but very few can spell the words that they use. Spelling skills help children differentiate words that are pronounced the same way but are written differently.

Children can be taught how to spell correctly in a variety of ways, including:

• Encouraging reading – for example, reading storybooks word by word to teach children how to read and spell words.
• Calling out a word and spelling it out loud – for example, teaching your child how to spell words with ‘Lily Pad Letters’.
• Playing games to practice spelling – for example, playing ‘scrambled spelling’ using alphabet blocks.

Spelling skills are essential for mastering the art of written communication.

Comprehension
The primary use of words is to convey meaning. Words mean nothing if children can’t understand how and why they’ve been used. Comprehension skills are essential to ensure children understand what they read.
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A variety of strategies can be deployed to help children improve their reading or text comprehension skills. These include the following:

• Summarising text – asking children to recap the main points.
• Generating questions – learners are asked to raise any questions they may have about what they’ve just read.
• Answering questions – learners are asked to answer questions regarding the text they’ve just read.
• Monitoring comprehension – identifying what learners understand and what they don’t understand. For example, using a finger to follow along and point out words that the reader doesn’t seem to understand.

Children that have good comprehension skills tend to excel in school and beyond.

Families and educators should team up to improve children’s literacy development
When it comes to early literacy development, the main takeaway is that all children are different. Parents should work together with educators to help every child acquire the skills they need to achieve literacy success.

Image credit: Jerry Wang on Unsplash

Author:
Jesper Ryynänen,
Co-founder & Head of Partnerships at GraphoGame