Parents are children’s first teachers as children learn rapidly during their first few years of life. This is the time when children learn how to communicate as talking back and forth teaches children the way conversations work. When my child started babbling, I would let her babble until she stopped, then I would talk to her and stop to let her take a turn. When we would go back and forth, for what seemed like hours to me, it taught her how to have a conversation. Parents are children’s first teachers because we can help children learn literacy skills by using everyday conversation. Teaching your child to express themselves clearly and communicate with others can be done with a little encouragement.

Parents can do the following:

• Encourage children to participate in conversations. (This can be done as early as birth.)
• Develop a larger vocabulary (One of the best ways to increase vocabulary is to read to your child every day. I started to read to mine at birth.
• Follow simple spoken directions (A game like point to your eyes, mouth or nose can help your child at a young age learn how to follow directions.)
• Listen attentively and avoid interruption (Listening to your child completely without interruption will help them learn how to listen themselves.)
• Understand that people communicate in a variety of ways (Young children may start communicating by pointing or grunting.)
• Play with sounds-rhyming, finger plays, etc. (Below is a suggested list of rhymes and games.)
  • The Itsy Bitsy Spider
  • Baa Baa Black Sheep
  • Mary Had a Little Lamb
  • Old MacDonald Had a Farm
  • The wheels on the Bus

Reading books to children every day will help to develop these skills. Children will develop listening skills and hear rhyming sounds as well as beginning and ending sounds of words.