Action Steps for Child Care Educators

Child care providers, teachers, directors, and others can actively prepare young children for reading success. Practitioners can:

Use research-based recommendations and resources to improve literacy environments for children.

Converse frequently and informally with babies and children to build vocabulary, strengthen concepts, and enhance language skills. Encourage and respond to children when they try to communicate.

Read to children every day. Encourage children to talk about the story or characters. Read one-on-one with a child when he or she asks.

Read to infants even before they can speak. Babies love to listen to voices and will associate books with pleasant feelings.

Encourage volunteers to read with children. Find volunteers through colleges, high schools, community and seniors organizations, religious groups, and businesses.

Engage children in daily activities to build reading readiness, such as singing nursery rhymes and playing sound, word, and letter games.

Use the arts to engage young children in the development of language and communication skills.

Set up a reading and writing area for children. Make sure the area is well lit, with interesting books and writing tools. Include books for and about children with special needs, and books about the children’s languages and cultures.

Encourage parents to read to and with their children, either in English or in their home language. Lend a range of books overnight.

Make frequent trips to the library. Contact your librarian to plan a guided tour. Ask about bilingual story times or special story hours.

Seek out continuing education and training in child development and in effective teaching practices. Learn to identify "red flags" that may signal barriers to successful reading.

Find ways to coordinate training with other early care and education organizations. Joint training may be scheduled at a central site such as a library. Network to share information and resources.