Hugh's Early Literacy Journey in a Print Rich Home Literacy Environment
My 7-year-old son, Hugh, is a voracious reader who fully immerses himself in a state of absorbed reading. His teachers have had difficulty keeping up with his demand for reading more books, and the school library is, without question, his happy place where he is transported to many worlds–from Chad Sell’s Cardboard Kingdom series where he can see himself represented among an adventurous multiracial cast of characters to the inspirational and social justice messages embedded in the works of Amanda Gorman. At home he reads an abundance of graphic novel series, including The Investigators, Dog Man, and Pokemon. We read a variety of chapter books together, including the Humphrey (the classroom hamster) series, Captain Underpants and The Phantom Tollbooth.
This blog will document Hugh’s early literacy journey, beginning with significant texts where he participated in shared and independent reading events from infancy through his first year. These experiences have undoubtedly contributed to his reading achievement. Although his upbringing and development have emerged during a time of a precipitous increase of handheld devices and ebooks, I have been intentional about facilitating family literacy practices that prioritize actual books, given the addictive nature of technology that poses challenges for young children to focus on actual book reading activities.
Hugh’s reading journey is situated in children who learn how to read on the laps of their parents (Buchwald, 2014) and in print rich home environments where they are marinated in print (Edwards & Turner, 2009). Deep engagement with print from infancy is well documented as an early predictor of reading achievement (Hayes & Berthelson, 2020; McGee & Richgels, 2012; Mol & Bus, 2011).
Infants and toddlers are immersed more than ever in handheld devices and ebooks, given the proliferation of these devices in family literacy home environments (Archer, 2017; Harrison & McTavish, 2018). However, a growing body of research is emerging that suggests a need to restrict the usage of handheld devices during these formative years because young children benefit more from interactions with caregivers than from interactive screens (Archer, 2017; Reich, Yau, & Warschauer, 2016). As caregivers rely on technology as a source of entertainment and educational resource for young children, Archer (2017) informed about potential benefits with active caregiver engagement. However, Archer (2017) cautioned that excessive exposure without caregiver participation negatively impacts fine motor development.
In this blog, my aim is to inform about the benefits of books for infants and toddlers through a family literacy perspective, through the lens of sustaining and low cognitive demand strategies, and through interactions with caregivers. Although technology is not the primary focus of this blog, its fast pace and capacity to draw intense interest among young children over literacy activities warrants mentioning.
McGee & Richgels (2012) informed about a variety of books for infants and toddlers that provide interactive reading experiences and spoken language development. Such texts are characterized by their attention-getting features that support sustaining and low cognitive demand strategies, which promote interest in reading, book handling concepts, and ultimately, a foundation for developing early literacy skills. High cognitive demand strategies present opportunities for comprehension processes and extended discussion for toddlers.
Each recommended text will be complemented with a picture of Hugh’s engagement with the text and a description of his interaction with the text–independently and with family members.
Recommended Texts:
Black & White by Tana Hoban. Tana Hoban is a critically acclaimed author of a variety of books that appeal to infants and toddlers because of its contrasting colors and objects that appear in everyday life. Black & White is especially significant because of its attention getting and sustaining strategies for newborns who do not initially see color. This first picture documents Hugh’s independent interaction with the accordion style function of the text, where its practicality is detected because it is freestanding with Hugh lying down at one month old and looking at the objects.
That’s Not my Bunny by Fiona Watt. Fiona Watt has written a variety of That’s Not My…books that are attractive to infants and toddlers for its tactile and predictability features that are attention sustaining. The tactile feature is evident on the cover, as a fluffy bunny tail provides an expectation that there will be similar features throughout the text, while readers interact with other tactile features of objects and animals that are not the intended object. In this photo of Hugh at 6 months old, he is preparing to engage in book handling concepts that include turning the pages while touching and interacting with its tactile elements.
Hello Magazine. Hello falls under the Highlights magazine umbrella. Each issue includes a variety of attention sustaining features and combination of low and high cognitive demand strategies, including seek and find objects, short stories, rhymes and poems. Its durable pages are indestructible. In this picture where Hugh is approximately 6 months old, I am reading a short story while Hugh and his older sister Norah listen intently. The find it photo provides an example of seeking out objects in a broader photo.
Baby’s Shapes by Karen Katz. Karen Katz is the author of several books for infants and toddlers that include attention sustaining features, including lift the flap features, hidden objects, and clues. In this picture, Hugh, at approximately 6 months old, is interacting with square shapes that represent a variety of familiar objects. The text to concept correspondence transitioned to word acquisition in the months following his first birthday.
Never Touch a Monster by Rosie Greening and Stuart Lynch. The tactile elements in this Never Touch a… series include rubbery textures across a variety of shapes, an attention-sustaining feature, evidenced by Hugh’s interaction with the text at approximately 9 months old. Hugh enjoyed this book from infancy through toddlerhood.
Three Little Birds by Cedella Marley. By the time Hugh was 1 year old, he interacted independently with the text by turning the pages and examining the pictures. Over the duration of his first year, I sang the lyrics to the famous Bob Marley song while reading the text. As he developed language skills in the months following his first year, our singing and high cognitive demand discussion surrounding the text included the main character’s resemblance to Hugh, along with an acceptance that it’s ok to make mistakes because “every little thing is gonna be alright.”
Time to Sleep, Sheep the Sheep by Mo Willems is among several titles that feature repetitive language, fun use of onomatopoeia and interactions between characters. Hugh began reading the repetitive phrases and fun sound words in the months following his first year during shared reading experiences with me.
Additional Recommendations
The photo below reflects a shared library experience between Hugh and Norah that encompassed sitting and crawling on the floor and promoting a sense of ownership to choose, handle, and interact with books. While some of the books are difficult to see, they are a part of the process of being surrounded by books and being marinated in print. Some of the visible books will be outlined.
Sprinkle with Kisses series by Emma Dodd–featuring A Spoonful for Bunny. Although this text is difficult to see in the library photo, Sprinkle with Kisses was a mainstay for Hugh because he enjoyed snuggling as a baby and the toddler in the book looks like him. The double page spread includes rhyming word features, along with holes, a tactile element that encourages handling the book.
Don’t Push the Button series by Bill Cotter is prominently featured in the front of the picture above and attracts readers on the basis of prompting the reader to not push the button. As the button is pushed, as it inevitably will be, the monster experiences many unexpected transformations.
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw was enjoyed by Hugh and Norah, as evidenced above. Its contrasting colors, simple language, and recognizable objects promoted enjoyable shared reading experiences for Hugh and presented Norah an opportunity to reminisce during a library visit with her little brother.
Additional recommendations that are not pictured, but are highly recommended include:
- The Where’s Spot series by Eric Hill, for its lift the flap features and clues
- Any books by Karen Katz for portrayals of multiracial babies and toddlers, lift the flap features, and clues
- Whose knees are these by Jabari Asim, for a portrayal of an African American boy and fun rhymes about his knees.
- The Cat the Cat series by Mo Willems, for extensive interactions with repetitive language and use of onomatopoeia.
Conclusion
The collection of recommended texts underscores a variety of attention sustaining features that promote low and high cognitive demand strategies for babies and toddlers. The abundance of texts makes it possible and necessary for caregivers to be intentional about providing on-going immersion with independent and shared reading experiences. Full immersion in a print rich home environment, with limited exposure to handheld devices, is a predictor of early reading acquisition.
References
Archer, K. (2017). Infants, toddlers and mobile technology: Examining parental choices and the impact of early technology introduction on cognitive and motor development.
Buchwald, E. (2014). Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. A Lifetime of Fiction: The 500 Most Recommended Reads for Ages 2 to 102, .
Edwards, P. A., & Turner, J. D. (2014). Family literacy and reading comprehension. In Handbook of research on reading comprehension (pp. 646-666). Routledge.
Farrant, B. M., & Zubrick, S. R. (2013). Parent–child book reading across early childhood and child vocabulary in the early school years: Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
First Language, 33(3), 280-293. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723713487617.
Harrison, E., & McTavish, M. (2018). ‘i’Babies: Infants’ and toddlers’ emergent language and literacy in a digital culture of iDevices. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 18(2), 163-188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798416653175
Hayes, N., & Berthelsen, D. C. (2020). Longitudinal profiles of shared book reading in early childhood and children’s academic achievement in Year 3 of school. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 31(1), 31–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2019.1618347.
Mol, S. E., & Bus, A. G. (2011). To read or not to read: A meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood. Psychological Bulletin, 137(2), 267–296. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021890
Reich, S.M. Yau, J.C., Warschauer, M. (2016). Tablet-based eBooks for young children: What does the research say? Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 37(7):p 585-591. DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000335
