Pre-Reading and Writing Skills at Home

Pre-Reading and Writing Skills at Home

by April Pearl Kennedy

Having recently gone on maternity leave as I expect my second baby’s arrival very soon, I’ve been so lucky to have had some quality time with my firstborn. Although he’s only 18 months old, me, being a typical mother with a mommy brain that never shuts off thinking about the future… I’ve started thinking about preschools and researching options in the area.

As an Early Years specialist, I’m mindful of cultural differences and beliefs when considering schools and their philosophies and I understand that expectations here in Malaysia may differ greatly from my Irish ones. But one area I dive into each time I scour a website, or chat with a school representative, is their approach to pre-reading and writing skills. The key word here is PRE. I am not in any big rush to get my little one reading and writing. There’s a lot of cognitive and physical development that needs to happen first. I have seen the pitfall of forcing a child to hold a pencil and copy letters and words, before it was developmentally appropriate, many times among parents and teachers I have encountered during my career and I am not keen to make the same mistake. I’ve seen how this can lead to frustrations and the damage it can cause to the child’s relationship with the people involved, but also with the future relationship of reading and writing. It is important to me to find a preschool that aligns with this view and supports the PRE-skills needed without interrupting his creativity and curiosity in play. Of course, being only 18 months, I’m not rushing to send him to a preschool and in the meantime, he will be at home with me.

This has led me to think about what it is that I do at home too, to support these pre-reading and writing skills. Of course, being 9 months pregnant at the moment has meant a huge depletion in my energy levels and sometimes when I look on Pinterest for inspiration of activities or games I might do with him, I’m met with a bank of ideas that are wonderful, but time consuming and quite frankly, overwhelming to create. Therefore, I wanted to reflect on the ways which I incorporate some of these skills into our daily lives that 1) does not take a hot glue gun and an hour to prepare a one off activity and 2) can be done naturally in the flow of the day without taking away or setting aside allocated/specific time.

It’s also important to me that he leads his play and development. I truly believe that children are a lot more knowledgeable and capable of understanding their needs than we give them credit for at times. It’s important that I take his lead and if I see an opportunity to incorporate some of the activities below, that I do, but that I ensure that I don’t force this also. At the end of the day, my relationship with him is the most important thing and I don’t want that to be sullied by a “Tiger mum” approach at such a young age.

Although pre-reading and pre-writing skills typically go hand-in-hand and one activity could be argued to support either skill, I have split them into three pre-reading skills and three pre-writing skills which I personally do to support my child’s development naturally at home.

Three Pre-Reading Skills

Rhymes, Songs and Sound Games

Many school-age children’s parents may already know that phonemic (letter sounds) awareness is typically the backbone for reading skills. Phonemic awareness and skills allow children to identify sounds and manipulate them to read and write words. My son is too young to start associating letters, sounds and words just yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with sounds and listening! From the beginning, I’ve incorporated songs and rhymes throughout our day, keeping things silly and playful. The classical nursery rhymes I grew up with are repeated whenever I see a trigger, as well as some of the newer ones I have learned through teaching Reception for years. For example, a mouse pops up in a story book? Three Blind Mice. We see a spider on the wall? Incy wincy spider. His shirt has a star on it? Twinkle twinkle. Simple but effective and done with no preparation or thought at times! There have also been many songs and nonsense rhymes created on the spot, narrating a nappy change or singing about the dinner on the table. My husband for example is wonderful at these adding fun intonations in his voice and pulling faces to go along with the nonsense, getting our boy giggling and babbling in repetition. Right now, my language expectation for my son is simply about mimicking sounds he hears since he is so young. Animal sounds and environmental noises like cars and planes are a huge hit in our house now. Although if your children are older at home, you can encourage them to repeat or even come up with their own poems or songs. As he grows, I’ll introduce wordplay with rhymes and patterns, like stringing together “cat, hat, mat” or starting with the same sound – “baby, belly, ball, boy.”. The sillier, the better – nothing beats a good “silly mama!” correction when she accidently calls the “cat” a “bat” then “mat” then “hat” and the child can correct her.

Environmental Print, Symbols, and Representations

Reading is essentially decoding symbols that represent meaning. Think hieroglyphics in Egypt! Long before children can read words, they can learn to understand symbols around them. Consider the parking signs, “stop” symbols, “slippery floor” warnings, and toilet signs you might see on a trip to the mall. Without reading the words, you know the meaning of the symbol. Talk to your child about these signs when you spot them. Try to repeat the same message each time you see the sign together. This helps them understand that pictures and symbols convey meaning, setting the stage for future recognition that “c-a-t” spells a furry household pet.

Reading Books Together

Reading books with your child is a significant indicator of later academic success (Brown et al. 2022). A colleague of mine aptly described 3 types of reading at home for our students: there are books children can read, books you can read together, and books you read to them. Even if they can’t yet read or decode words, wordless books or picture books are fantastic. At home, we often pick a book off the shelf, look at the pictures together, and retell the story in our own words. This can be done with a child of any age, even my young boy who will just repeat the sounds things make. However you may choose to read with your child, there is a lot of research out there to show that reading together with your child is integral for academic success and developing their reading skills. Brown et al suggest 11 minutes a day reading with your child at age 1-2 will see benefit even at ages 8-11. We read books quite often at home together, a habit we began the day we took him home from the hospital. I have been fortunate enough to acquire some lovely second-hand books for free from people looking to empty their shelves. Some are of course, better than others, but simply fostering a love of reading at my son’s young age is enough for me right now. At home you can encourage your child to read by allowing them to chose the book or using a teddy or puppet to tell the story. Perhaps incorporating story books into their nighttime routine or starting the day with a book is a way to build the habit of reading into your household naturally.

Three Pre-Writing Skills

Outdoor Play

Something I’ve learned as a teacher is that fine motor skills, like writing, originate from the core. A strong, stable core is essential for controlled coordination of the smaller hand and finger muscles. That’s why, among many other reasons why, I advocate for outdoor play which typically involve whole body movements and development. Time outdoors typically sees my son running around objects, climbing anything he can, ducking under obstacles, kicking balls, and pushing, throwing or pulling things he finds. These activities help to build his core strength and by doing so will help to support fine motor control later. A younger me would’ve been thrilled to know that an hour at the play park or playing football could be good for handwriting! I’m a huge advocate for the outdoors (my masters dissertation was based on outdoor education in primary schools) so each day we spend time outside with our son. I understand that living in Kuala Lumpur or any other big city might affect some family’s access to outdoor areas, but if you can, getting outdoors is good for all the family. If you cannot, then any games you can encourage at home that require your child to move their body in large movements like those you might do at a play park would be beneficial for their core development. Something I have used before in the classroom were children’s zumba and childrens dance workouts videos on Youtube. Even better yet, would be to make one of these up yourselves or just play some music to move your bodies to in various ways (I’m sure any cringy dance moves you may make will be forgiven.)

Using those fingers!

The above two pictures are taken from Ruth Swailes’s, a UK School Improvement Advisor, tweet from 2019. It is regularly used among those working with early years children to highlight the difference in hand development between a 7-year-old and an early year’s child and to advocate for age-appropriate hand developmental activities. However, in many curriculums, handwriting and letter writing skills are introduced early in the school and are often seen within the early year’s curricula. Therefore, it is essential to support hand development early on and long before insisting on pencil grip and correct letter formation. My son engages in lots of activities throughout the day that challenge the use of his fingers and hands. We have some dedicated toys for him at home to challenge this, such as toys with buttons and zippers, squeezing and poking playdough, tearing different types of papers, and sticking stickers. However, I try to encourage opportunities that arise naturally in our day such as pulling his sandal velcro open and close, picking and screwing lids on and off containers, and picking up some finger food during mealtimes. These are natural activities that arrive throughout our day and again we do not prepare beforehand. These activities build the dexterity needed for writing later without forcing him to hold a pencil in position too early in his development.

Mark Making lots of different ways!

Mark making is more than just writing and drawing with pencils. My son, a very physically active boy, has shown little interest in traditional mark making so far. So, I’ve had to get creative. We’ve introduced egg crayons (after showing interest in eggs over Christmas), and finger paints using our hands, feet, elbows and using random household items to make marks. As he grows, we’ll continue to explore using different tools like paintbrushes, forks, leaves and anything else we can get our hands on at home long before pencils will even be available in his play area. Chalk, whiteboard markers, and even using a paintbrush and water on walls outside are all in our future. It’s all about getting creative with what we have and keeping it light and fun. One tip I can give parents which has also worked well for my students in class, is to offer children opportunities to mark make with large body movements and allow them to do so upright. Sticking a large piece of paper or several pieces of paper taped together to the wall or painting easel if you have one, allows them to paint big pictures and encourages larger movements which may be more appropriate for their developmental stage, especially during that pre-writing stage.

These are just some of the ways I support my little one’s pre-reading and writing skills at home. And I hope that it can help to inspire you to do the same at home. I hope you take away from this that supporting pre-reading and writing skills is important before a child begins formal reading and writing. I hope these ideas inspire other parents too to see that you can incorporate short activities into our daily routines without the pressure of formal teaching or stunting children’s creativity and play. There are many ideas out there, and we could create a list as long as my arm of things we could do, however, as a busy mother myself, I wanted to be genuine in how I approach supporting these skills without asking parents to jump through hoops in order to support their child’s development.

Michelle I. Brown, Cen Wang, Sharynne McLeod (2022) ‘Reading with 1–2 year olds impacts academic achievement at 8–11 years’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 58, pp. 198-207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.09.008

Meet Pearl

Originally from Ireland, Pearl has gained valuable experience in education across various corners of the globe, having trained and worked in Germany, Kuwait, Malaysia, and, of course, Ireland. With over six years of international early years and primary teaching experience and more than a decade of working with English as an Additional Language (EAL) students, she has a wealth of practical knowledge and experience which supports her in her international teaching career.Pearl began her educational career training to be a Special Needs Assistant in Ireland and completed an Advanced Certificate in Childcare with Disabilities Studies. She has since obtained her Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Health, Care and Education, where she earned the Optum Award for achieving the highest grade point average in her class. She also possesses a Cambridge CELTA certificate for teaching English to EAL learners, an International Postgraduate Certificate in Education, UK Qualified Teacher Status, and most recently a Master's in Education.As an early years specialist and a passionate advocate for children's education, Pearl combines her professional insights with her personal experiences as a busy parent. She aims to provide an honest and realistic perspective on both teaching and parenting, acknowledging the ideal practices while also recognising the practicalities of everyday life. Her goal is to inspire parents and educators to reflect on and challenge their views on teaching and learning, fostering growth alongside the children.

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