Developing reading and writing skills for under fives

In order to make a good start in reading and writing, your child needs you to talk and listen to them. This helps them hear how language is put together into sentences and prepares them to become readers and writers.

Learning in everyday life

Whether you're at home, on the bus, in the shops or at the doctors surgery, there are countless opportunities to help your child to learn. You can do this by talking with them and reading together, plus there are fun ways to develop their writing skills too.

Reading together

Reading stories with your child, if only for ten minutes a day, helps build important skills as well as capturing your child's interest in books. Books are a rich source of information for your child as they contain words you might not use in everyday conversations. From their earliest days babies enjoy listening to stories and looking at books.

To help your child become a lifelong reader you can:

spend a few minutes a day telling stories and reading together, and make it fun by choosing books you both enjoy
talk about the pictures and characters in the books and make up your own stories
read as you walk down the street and round the shops, pointing out signs and words and talking about them
buy books as presents and join a local library

More resources for helping your child with reading

Learning about letters

As children grow older they begin to understand more about the sounds of our language and can join in with rhymes, songs and stories. Over time this will help your child develop an understanding that words are made up of different sounds. Soon they will be able to hear these different sounds in words.

Gradually they will learn to match sounds to letters. They use this knowledge when they are reading and writing.

To help this learning process you can:

sing nursery rhymes and songs together, sometimes pointing to the words in a book
play games with sounds, making up silly words that all begin with the same sound (for example the first sound in their name)
get your child to spot letters they recognise in words (for example the first letter of their name)
look at brochures and catalogues together, pointing out words printed in bold or with unusual fonts
play 'I spy', as children get older, to help them listen to the sounds different words begin with

Developing mark-making and early writing skills

Your child will notice adults around them reading and writing and they will want to copy them. From a young age children enjoy experimenting with making marks. The more opportunities your child has to develop large and small movement in their arms, hands and fingers, the better. This will make it easier to make marks with a variety of tools.

You can help your child by:

doing activities like digging, ‘painting’ outdoor surfaces with water and a large brush, sweeping and swishing a scarf through the air in different shapes
hanging out the washing, using a peg board and picking up grains of rice with fingers, which all help develop the grip needed for writing
helping them to make marks on paper with their fingers, brushes and crayons
helping them write labels, birthday cards and invitations

Bookstart - books for babies and toddlers

Bookstart is a programme that aims to promote a life-long love of books.

In Northern Ireland there are different types of Bookstart packs available, for example:

Bookstart pack (0 to 12 months) - a canvas bag containing two board books and a book of nursery rhymes, advice on sharing books, information about libraries and an invitation to join
Bookstart Treasure Chest for three year olds, including two picture books, a set of stickers, a colouring pad, coloured pencils, and guidance material for parents and carers

Your baby should receive a pack or information about the scheme within their first year from their health visitor - if not, contact your local library.

If you have any other questions about the Bookstart scheme, ask at your local library.