What is Early Literacy and Why Should I Care?
Early literacy is what children know about communication, language, reading, and writing before they can actually read and write. It is all of a child’s early experiences with language, stories, books, and print.
Early literacy matters because many of Alaska’s young children enter kindergarten without proper early literacy skills. These literacy skills are necessary for children to learn how to read AND to become good readers. When a child reads well, it leads to greater success in school (including high school graduation), higher self-esteem, and wider choices and options in life after they leave school. During the first three years of a child’s life, the brain develops at an extremely fast rate. This is when children are more receptive to gaining language and literacy skills. It is critical that during this time we promote early literacy.
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Five Components of Early Literacy
Early literacy can be divided early literacy into five skills or components. Children need ALL of these early literacy components to be good readers, though they will not obtain them in a particular order.
- Phonological Awareness: ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words
- Print Awareness: knowledge that print has meaning, how to handle a book
- Letter Knowledge: knowing that letters have different shapes and represent sounds
- Vocabulary: knowing the meanings of words
- Background Knowledge: prior knowledge before child enters school
Five Practices of Early Literacy
Parents and caregivers are a child’s first teachers. You may not think of yourself as a teacher, but children learn about new words and concepts by interacting with caring adults. To encourage early literacy development in the infants and toddlers in your life, caregivers are encouraged to use five practices:
READ |
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SING |
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PLAY |
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TALK |
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WRITE |
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Early Literacy Organizations
The organizations listed below are dedicated to early literacy and/or early childhood education. The list is divided into two sections: Alaska statewide organizations and national organizations.
Alaska Organizations
- Alaska Head Start Association
Dedicated to strengthening early learning programs through advocacy, education, and leadership. AHSA represents all 16 Head Start programs in Alaska. - Alaska Infant Learning Program
Program run by the Dept of Health and Social Services that promotes access to a flexible array of quality services to all Alaskan infants and toddlers with special developmental needs and to their families. - Anchorage Association for the Education of Young Children
The Anchorage chapter of the AEYC is working to bring high-quality early learning opportunities to all children from birth through age eight and serves the needs of early childhood education professionals in the Anchorage area. - Best Beginnings
A public-private partnership that mobilizes people and resources to ensure all Alaska children begin school ready to succeed through support from businesses, foundations, nonprofits, government, and individuals.- Best Beginnings Newsletter
Six newsletters annually in addition to timely e-mail alerts, which communicate events or important issues that affect early learning efforts in Alaska.
- Best Beginnings Newsletter
- Imagination Library in Alaska
Imagination Library mails a FREE, high-quality, brand-new book each month to children from birth to age 5 who live in communities that support the program. Serves 110 communities. - Juneau Families
Website created by Partnerships for Families & Children (PFC) — a Best Beginnings Partnership. PFC is a group of 20 non-profit and state agencies working together to promote a web of community support for young children and their families. - Northern Interior Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children
The Northern Interior chapter of the AEYC serves early childhood education professionals in the Interior and other parts of Alaska. - Parents As Teachers
A support network that empowers parents to give their children a great start in life, includes one-on-one home visits and group events. Administered by RurAL CAP. Serves 19 communities in AK. - Reach Out and Read
Nonprofit organization of medical providers who promote early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms nationwide by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud. There are 65 locations in AK. Click on “Find a Program” to find the closest location. - Southeast Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children
The Southeast chapter of the AEYC serves early childhood education professionals in southeast Alaska. - thread
Helps parents make informed choices about child care and education. thread also holds family events and parent workshops. Offices in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai, and Wasilla.
National Organizations
- 1000 Books Before Kindergarten
Non-profit dedicated to promoting reading to young children and encouraging parents to bond with their children through reading. Website has booklists, reviews, articles and an iPhone app to help record reading progress. - Association for Library Service to Children – Born to Read
Aimed at providing early literacy resources to library staff as they help new parents to become aware that reading to a baby from birth is critical to every baby’s growth and well being. - Every Child Ready to Read
ECRR is a parent education initiative created by the Public Library Association. It stresses that early literacy begins with the primary adults in a child’s life. The ECRR toolkit is available for purchase. - Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy – Book Awards
Annual recognition given to picture books that provide excellent support of early literacy development in young children, will serve as a collection development, program planning, and early literacy information resource for librarians, educators, and caregivers. - National Institute for Early Education Research
NIEER conducts and communicates research to support high-quality, effective early childhood education for all young children. The Institute offers independent, research-based advice and technical assistance to policymakers, journalists, researchers, and educators. - Family Place Libraries
Network of children’s librarians nationwide who believe that literacy begins at birth, and that libraries can help build healthy communities by nourishing healthy families. The program focuses on the parent-child relationship and aims to expand the role of public libraries as key players in family and early childhood development, parent and community involvement, and lifelong learning beginning at birth. - Little eLit
Professional learning network that works to develop promising practices for the incorporation of new media into library collections, services and programs for families with young children. - Mother Goose on the Loose
An award-winning early-literacy program for children from birth to age 3 with their parents or caregivers that uses a variety of activities, such as rhymes, songs, puppets and instruments to foster speech development, motor coordination, self-confidence, and sensitivity to others. Program materials are available for purchase. - Read Aloud 15 MINUTES
Non-profit organization that is working to make reading aloud every day for at least 15 minutes the new standard in child care. - Saroj Ghoting (Early Childhood Literacy Consultant)
Ghoting is an expert on early literacy who offers trainings and workshops for library staff and at national, state, and local conferences. Her website has a wealth of early literacy resources for librarians. - Zero to Three
National non-profit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and the know-how to nurture early development.
