Educating Young Children Volume 1 - Winter 2026 | Page 60

Key Ideas to Share with Families

Here are five ideas to share with families about children’ s literacy development and learning:

› Talk, talk, talk. Invite your child into conversations. There is a strong link between oral language development and literacy development.

› Read aloud with your child, and discuss what you read. Continue to read aloud long after your child starts to read on their own. Once your child can read independently, ask them about what they’ re reading, and keep talking about what they’ re reading!

› Share with your child how you use reading and writing in your home and community. Let them participate as much as possible. Invite your child to help make a grocery list, show them how you use a recipe, read signs and menus together, write a special note or card together, or have your child type a text message to a family member.

› Summer reading matters! Encourage your child to keep reading when they’ re not in school. Visit your local library, and look out for programs where schools send books home to read over the summer. Look for books and other types of text( including digital texts) that your child finds engaging.

› Don’ t hesitate to check in with your child’ s pediatrician or teacher if you have concerns about your child’ s language or literacy development.

Tanya S. Wright, PhD, is professor of early literacy in the Marsal Family School of Education at the University of Michigan.

Annie Moses, PhD, is director of periodicals at NAEYC and serves as editor in chief of Young Children and Educating Young Children.

Photographs: p. 22 © Getty Images; p. 23 courtesy of Tanya S. Wright and Annie Moses Copyright © 2026 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See permissions and reprints online at NAEYC. org / resources / permissions.