Literacy is part of everyday learning. Tamariki (children) learn best when literacy is integrated into everyday activities rather than isolated learning times. Use the language that you are most familiar and comfortable with.
A child's ability to communicate is directly related to their literacy development. The better their conversational skills now, the easier it will be for them to understand what they read later on.
The more words that tamariki know, the easier it is for them to learn new words and to gain meaning from the stories they read.
Lots of experience listening to, and understanding, stories will eventually make it easier for your child to read and write stories on their own.
Before tamariki can read or write, they must understand how print works. They need to know that:
To be ready to read, tamariki need to understand that words can be broken down into syllables and smaller sounds and that letters correspond to certain sounds.
Your child's early literacy skills do not develop in a specific order, one after the other. In fact, all of these skills are developing at the same time.
See the Hanen Centre website for more information on how literacy skills develop in children [1]
If you would like to look at anything in more detail, this list of references [2] might be a good starting point.
The content on this page has been produced in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and adapted from Much more than words | Manuka takoto, kawea ake (2014) [3].
This page last reviewed 08 December 2023.
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Links
[1] https://www.hanen.org/Home.aspx
[2] https://kidshealth.org.nz/communication-development-references?language=ko
[3] https://seonline.tki.org.nz/Educator-tools/Much-More-than-Words
[4] https://kidshealth.org.nz/node/1584?language=ton
[5] https://kidshealth.org.nz/node/1903?language=ton
[6] https://kidshealth.org.nz/contact?from=http%3A%2F%2Fkidshealth.org.nz%2Fprint%2F1901%3Flanguage%3Dton