Children's and YA Services

Narrative Skills

• Talk to your baby (I'm going to put you in your car seat so we can go to the store.
• Read simple stories. Talk about the pictures
• Share nursery rhymes and songs. Connect them with every day experiences, for example sing Row, Row, Row, Your Boat during bath time.
• Listen and response when your child talks (or babbles) to you. Ask questions to encourage your child to talk more.

• Encourage your child to "read" a simple familiar book to you.
• Read stories that have a refrain your child can repeat. (Gingerbread Man)
• Read stories with lots of patterns and repetition. Encourage your child to guess what happens next.

• Read with your child every day.
• Encourage your child to talk to you while you read.
• Ask "what" questions. ("What is Goldilocks doing?)
• Ask open ended questions. ("Why is baby bear sad?")
• As questions that connect the story to your child's experience.
• Have your child retell a familiar story to you.

Phonological Awareness

• Focus on the rhyming words when you share nursery rhymes and songs.
• Use bouncing and clapping rhymes to focus on the rhythm of poetry and the syllables of words.

• Read nursey rhymes and rhyming stories
• sing songs together
• encourage your child to guess the rhyming words in nursery rhymes ("Three little kittens have lost their ____")
• Point our words that share the same beginning sound.
• Make a game of finding words with the same first sound. Learn alliterative tongue twister like "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers".

• Read nursery rhymes and rhyming stories.
• Sing songs together.
• Play rhyming games with your child. ("How many words do we know that rhyme with hat.")
• Talk to your child about the sounds that make up words. Help your child listen for :
  • Words that share beginning sounds (mouse, Mary, Mom, Moose.)
  • Syllables in words. Clap the syllables to find out how many parts a word has. (How many parts are in cat? How many in bun-ny? How many in el-e-phant?)

Alphabet Knowledge

• Sing the alphabet song.
• Point out and name letters in books, and in the "real" world. (S-T-O-P)
• Read alphabet books. Play with plastic or magnetic letters.

• Point to the letters of alphabet while singing the alphabet song.
• Write your child's name everywhere. Talk about the letters as you write. (David, let's write your name with the letter magnets. Come help me find "D".)
• Read alphabet books and books about letters and words. (B-I-N-G-O and Bingos was his name-o.)

• Encourage your child to write letters and meaningful words, like their name.
• Write letters in many different ways, in the air, on the carpet with your finger, with letter magnets.
• Point our letters and words in books you read together

Concepts about Print

• Let your baby or toddler hold and "read" sturdy board books. It's okay if they chew them!
• Point to words on the page as you read.
• Snuggle, laugh, and hug your child while you read. One of the most important concepts about print is the sharing books with your children is terrific fun!

• Let your child hold the book and turn the pages. Point out the title of story. Move your finger along the print as you read.
• Pretend to start a story at the back of the book or hold the book upside-down. Does your child correct you by turning the front page or turn the book around?
• Take your child to the public library and let them choose books to take home.
• Listen, laugh, and learn from your child as you read together. One of the most important "concepts about print" is that sharing books builds a close, loving relationship with your child.

• Make sure that your child knows it is print (and not pictures) that is rea din stories.
• Point to words as you read.
• Let your child hold the book and turn the pages.
• Pretend to start a story at the back of the book or hold the book upside-down. Does your child correct you by turning to the front page or turning the book around
• Make time to read with your child every day. One of the most important "concepts about print" that your child can learn from you is that reading is important, and fun!

• Read aloud often. Books are the best source of new words.
• Use words from a familiar story to talk about every day experiences.
• Encourage your child to talk. It's the ability to use vocabular (by speaking) that prepares a child to be a good reader.
• Ask questions that need more than a yes or no answer. ("Tell me about that dog", instead of "Do you see that dog?")

• Read aloud often. Books are the best source of new words.
• Ask questions about the pictures in the book. As your child gets older, ask questions that require more detailed answers. ("What is that animal doing?" instead of "What animal is that?")
• Read books that highlight the sheer fun of words, that Phyllis Root's The Rattletrap Car: "Fizzelly sizzelly wapity bappity lumpety bumpety clinkety clankety bing bang pop! They were off to the lake in the rattletrap car."

• Read aloud every day. Books are the best source of new words.
• Encourage your child to talk. It's the ability to use vocabular (by speaking) that prepares a child to be a good reader.
• Ask questions that need more than a yes or no answer. ("Tell me about the dog.")
• Read non-fiction books on a subject that grabs your child's interest. Children love learning the names of things like the parts of a car, species of dinosaur, or types of ocean creatures.
• Use new words during your daily routines. For example, instead of talking a walk to the park, you could take a stroll.