If your child is between the ages of 3 and 5, then congratulations, you officially are parenting a preschooler! While this stage may simply appear to be a transitional time between toddlerhood and school age, it is so much more. The preschool years serve as a uniquely important time in a child’s development because your preschooler’s brain is primed to build a strong foundation in language and pre-literacy skills!
You may already notice that your preschooler is notoriously curious about everything. They are asking questions, exploring, and making connections about the world around them. The skills developed during these important years help prepare children for the exciting adventure of reading and writing.
Just as during the baby and toddler years, you, as a caregiver, play a vital role in building this foundation for your child. The language and pre-literacy enhancing strategies below are simple ways to support your child’s language development and contribute to future literacy success.
Encourage Pretend and Imaginative Play
Play is one of the primary ways children learn language. During pretend play, children practice vocabulary, sentence structure, social communication, comprehension, and storytelling skills.
While a child plays imaginatively, caregivers can us WH questions:
Example: “What are you doing now?” or “Where is the teddy bear going?”
Model pretend play ideas to encourage engagement (e.g., pretending to cook by stirring a spoon in a bowl or using stuffed animals to play “school”)
Introduce and reinforce new vocabulary during play (e.g., labeling foods while playing “grocery store”)
Expand on your child’s phrases and sentences by modeling more complex language
Ask questions about their play to strengthen comprehension and support understanding of WH-questions (who, what, where, what doing)
Continue Daily Shared Reading Time
Shared reading continues to be one of the most effective ways to support language and early literacy development during the preschool years.
Choose books that reflect your child’s interests while also introducing books that expose them to new vocabulary, concepts, and simple storylines.
While reading together, caregivers can:
- Point to words as they read to build awareness of print and letters
- Point to pictures to introduce or reinforce vocabulary
- Ask questions about pictures and characters using WH-questions (who, what doing, where)
- Ask simple questions about the storyline and encourage predictions
- Example: “What is happening now?” or “What do you think will happen next?”
- Reread favorite books often. Repetition helps reinforce vocabulary, comprehension, and story structure. Children benefit from multiple exposures when learning new language skills.
Incorporate Sound Awareness
Research shows that noticing rhyming words in nursery rhymes and songs are important foundational skills for reading and writing. Early sound-awareness skills help support later reading and spelling development.
While singing songs or saying nursery rhymes with your child, caregivers can:
- Highlight words that rhyme
- Example: “Did you hear that? Sun and run rhyme! Those words sound the same at the end.”
- Point out beginning sounds in words
- Example: “Sun starts with the /s/ sound!”
- Emphasize sounds within words in a playful and engaging way
- Encourage children to listen for words that sound the same
Focus on Language and Pre-Literacy
Make it part of your daily routines and activities to:
- Point out signs, labels, and environmental print (e.g., stop signs, grocery store signs, snack labels) to encourage print and letter awareness. Label letters as your child shows interest and curiosity.
- Narrate daily routines to reinforce everyday vocabulary and sentence structure. Talking through routines also helps strengthen your child’s understanding and comprehension of familiar tasks.
- Example: “The cars and trucks go in the vehicle basket.”
- Incorporate language and pre-literacy skills during coloring, drawing, and craft activities. Ask your child questions about what they are creating and encourage them to describe their pictures.
- Write your child’s name on their artwork to increase awareness of letters and print. A child’s name is often one of the first words they learn to recognize and eventually write.
- Use mealtimes as opportunities to build social connection and encourage conversation within the family. Family conversations help model important social language skills.
- Example: “What was your favorite part of your day?” or “What was something silly that happened today?”
Take Away
Remember, incorporating language and pre-literacy enhancing strategies does not have to be complex or expensive. Supporting language and pre-literacy development happens through simple, meaningful interactions repeated consistently throughout the day.
Reading together, talking during routines, singing songs, playing imaginatively, and sharing conversations at the dinner table may seem like small moments, yet these are often the habits that make the biggest difference. And the most magical part is that these everyday practices help your preschooler discover that language is all around them and is a beautiful, important part of their lives.
And, if you ever have concerns about your child’s speech and language development, reach out to your pediatrician and connect with your local early intervention and preschool program.
