From the time they are born and continuing through the preschool years, each child picks up these skills in his or her own way. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all parts of emergent literacy. Literacy really begins when an infant coos or babbles, then hears those sounds repeated by a responsive and loving adult. These early conversations, which can make adults feel a little silly, are a gentle introduction to spoken language, and will soon change into the sounds and rhythms of language. Adults encourage these beginning steps into language by singing, saying nursery rhymes, doing finger play, and sharing simple, sturdy picture books.
Adults can link what the baby sees and hears with objects and with pictures of objects in books.
Listening and speaking are closely linked to later attempts at reading and writing. Children need a variety of experiences before they are ready to be taught to read and write. Experiences like these, it was thought, would help children reach a point where they were ready for more formal teaching. Educators thought that children were not ready to actually read until they reached this point. Today, we believe that different children learn to read in different ways.