7 Tips to Encourage Preliteracy Skills in Preschoolers

All SLPs can identify at least one child who immediately gets up and runs away as soon as they see a storybook come out. As we head into the hectic holiday season, it can spark your students’ interest—and help us stay motivated until the break—to try something easy and new. These seven strategies work well for me to encourage preliteracy skills in the preschool population. Who wouldn’t naturally enjoy a cuddly little preschooler sitting in our lap while we read, or maybe face-to-face as they would during circle time? Instead, try placing the child in a chair or on the couch while you sit on the floor. This puts you and the book at their eye level and grabs their attention. Try to pair book reading with another preferred activity. Maybe read a short book during snack time or while they color. Include the parents and suggest that they try reading while the child is in the bathtub or eating a meal. Keep reading short and point to the text. Pointing at something for preschoolers increases the child’s attention to the task. Use suprasegmentals to keep the pace moving. Expressiveness can improve young children’s engagement and attention while increasing comprehension. Build anticipation through tone and pausing. Little ones love rhyme, and books with rhyming text provide an opportunity for phonological awareness development. With practice, children can start participating in joint book reading by anticipating the rhyme. Reading a book repetitively helps a child begin t...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Private Practice Schools Slider Speech-Language Pathology Early Intervention Language Disorders Source Type: blogs