Links to Literacy is the early literacy program that librarians throughout the NCRL branches use in their weekly storytimes. Links to Literacy is a program that teaches children the skills needed to begin to learn to read. The branch librarians model book-sharing techniques for parents during storytimes, so they can incorporate these ideas into storytimes at home. Join us at your local community library for stories, songs, rhymes and fun!

Early Literacy Skills that every child learns before reading:

• LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

The process that children go through to learn how to send and receive verbal information. Learning and using new vocabulary is essential to language development along with learning how to follow and tell a story.

• BOOK KNOWLEDGE AND APPRECIATION

Understanding how books work – which way to hold a book, text reads from left to right and top to bottom, the parts of a book – cover, illustrations, and author’s name. The love of books and reading is appreciation for books.

• PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

The ability to discern different sounds in a word is important for early literacy. Children must be able to recognize rhyming, letter sounds and syllables. Songs and nursery rhymes are wonderful for teaching phonological awareness.

• PRINT AWARENESS

Understanding what print is – that the scribbles on a page mean something and that words are all around us.

• ALPHABET RECOGNITION
  

Recognizing the shape of the letters of the alphabet and the corresponding sounds that go with those letters.

• EARLY WRITING
  

Learning that one can express ideas through drawing, scribbling and writing which is learned by practicing and playing.