Effective resources for developing early literacy skills

Early literacy grows through four channels, each with its own resources: reading (rhyme-rich books and read-together rituals), speaking (songs, sound games and open questions), writing (scribbles, play dough letters and matching games), and play (pretend and role play). Add a few good digital tools and you have a complete home kit.

Children pick things up from the very start, and the more we interact with them early, the stronger their literacy foundation. Here is a working collection of resources, organised by skill.

Reading resources

Reading with your child develops vocabulary, listening, understanding, and the connection between sounds and words, and daily reading together strengthens your relationship while preparing them to read and write.

• Choose books with rhyme, rhythm and repetition: Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox, Hairy Maclary by Lynley Dodd, The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.
• For babies and toddlers: lift-the-flap and touch-and-feel books.
• Link books to real life: after a book about the park, visit yours and point out the swings from the story.
• Encourage acting out characters and animals from the book.
• Before turning a page, ask what happens next; make the story physical with movements and noises as they occur.
• Look at faces in books and magazines and ask “How is she feeling?” Naming others’ feelings builds emotional vocabulary and self-expression together.
• Raid the local library for engaging stories that fit your family, and for gentle viewing, The Roots of Reading from the PBS Launching Young Readers series shows how parents and teachers start children on the road to literacy.

Speaking resources

Talking and singing develop listening and speaking; every word your child hears builds vocabulary, and spoken language is the foundation later writing stands on.

• Rhyme at every opportunity: “snug as a bug in a rug”, or invented rhymes about the moment, “putting fish in the cat’s dish”.
• Sing the classics: “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, “Miss Polly Had a Dolly”, the alphabet song.
• Echo games: repeat your child’s sounds, or offer sounds to copy. “Cows say moo. Can you say moo?”
• Talk about the sounds outside: rustling leaves, birds, traffic; then let your child make the sounds of wind, rain, trains and cars.
• Play I Spy, with colours and numbers folded in for variety.
• Keep conversations going with how and why questions: “Why do you think that happened?”
• Help them talk about feelings: “You look frustrated. How do you feel?”

Drawing and writing resources

Scribbling and drawing build the fine motor control that pencil writing needs later, and they teach the big idea that marks on paper carry meaning.

• Have your child add a scribble or drawing to birthday cards and letters; every mark they make on a page is writing.
• Make up stories together and draw their events; ask them to tell you about their drawings, and to sign their artwork with their name or a few letters.
• Shape alphabet letters and numbers from play dough.
• Keep letters everywhere: blocks, fridge magnets, puzzle pieces.
• Draw or cut out pictures of household items, write the names on separate slips, and let your child match name to picture.

Playtime resources

Play is where children explore ideas, learn about the world and build self-esteem, so make time for it and join in.

• Pretend play deserves special billing: children use it to make sense of recent experiences, and research links dramatic play to empathy, maths and reading understanding, and creative problem-solving.
• Let your child be the star; you take the supporting role, copy what they do, and narrate the play aloud.
• Take the play outside too: the park and the supermarket are stages waiting for a script.

Resources matter less than the adult holding them. A cardboard box with an enthusiastic parent beats the finest app used alone.

Digital resources

Used sparingly and together, these earn their screen time:

• PBS Parents: tips, crafts, experiments and recipes for learning at home.
• Vroom (website and app): turns mealtime, bath time and commutes into brain-building moments.
• Duolingo ABC, Khan Academy Kids, and Montessorium’s Intro to Words for first reading play.
• Common Sense Media’s list of great early reading resources for more, vetted.

The thread through all of it: be creative, interactive and enthusiastic about time with your child in these years. Every child learns their own way, and you know your child’s way best. For the skills these resources are quietly building, see the six pre-reading skills and the bookless five.

Dr. V.S. Gayathri is a Certified Dyslexia Therapist, an Orton-Gillingham trained literacy specialist, and the founder of Flourishing Kids. She has delivered over 4,000 hours of one-to-one reading and spelling intervention, helping children across multiple countries build stronger literacy skills. For resource picks matched to your child, get in touch for a free 15-minute conversation.