Believe it or not, a foundation of language skills starts after birth. The following list contains examples of what children at this stage can develop and learn.
Most babies and toddlers should be able to:
- respond to gestures and facial expressions
- coo or babble sounds while lying down (this is the beginning of what eventually be rhyming and nonsense words with adults later on)
- handle objects like alphabet blocks
- recognize some books by their covers; understand how books should be handled
- pretend to read books; name objects in a book or talk about the characters
- read with an adult as part of their regular routine
- ask adults to read or write with them
- listen to stories (either told by an adult or from a media item)
- scribble with a purpose (trying to write or draw something); beginning characteristics of letters
- make sounds that imitate the tones/rhythms that adults make when talking
- play along in games like “peek-a-boo” or “pat-a-cake” (also known by most as “patty cake”)
- begin to associate words they hear frequently with a meaning
- begin to notice specific print (e.g. the first letters of their name)
- produce scribbles that resemble letters