An interactive children’s book that includes instructions that guide parents on how to efficiently read with their child(ren) to build important pre-literacy skills like rhyming and blending, the two most basic skills needed to become a great reader.
Research supports the need for development of pre-literacy skills in young children. However, parents are not always equipped with the necessary knowledge and strategies to help develop their child’s pre-literacy skills. The goal of this children’s book is to research and develop strategies that parents of preschoolers can use to facilitate development of pre-literacy skills.
The outcome will be a set of strategies embedded in a children’s book focusing on phonological awareness skills, a subset skill of pre-literacy. Additionally, the book includes a training guide for parents with themes of andragogy, teaching them how to use strategies to help their child(ren) develop skills. The children’s book will include a developmentally appropriate storyline with underpinnings of rhyming and blending, skills of phonological awareness, along with embedded parental cues for dialogic reading.
Dialogic reading strategies are used to increase conversations between parent and child about the book.
Specifically, focus on rhyming and blending sounds together.
Rhyming helps children develop the skills they need to be successful in reading and spelling. The definition of a rhyme is when two different words end with the same sound.
Blending is a strategy used to help children break down words. To blend words together, children use the sounds that match the letter to “sound out” the word. When blending, children are focusing on individual sounds and combining those sounds to make a word.
Pre-literacy skills need to be facilitated in young children by providing strategies and engaging activities to support children as well-developed and functional readers (De Witt & Lessing, 2018, p. 1845). Pre-literacy involves a “set of skills, knowledge and attitudes to formal reading and writing.” Pre-literacy skills mainly focus on developing “emergent writing skills” and “phonological awareness” (De Witt & Lessing, 2018, p. 1846).