Three- and 4-year-old children make huge strides in literacy. They begin to “read” their favorite books by themselves, focusing mostly on reenacting the story from the pictures. Eventually, they progress from telling about each picture individually to weaving a story from picture to picture.(Holdaway, 1979; International Reading Association & National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998; Sulzby, 1991)

At this time, children also experiment with writing by forming scribbles, letter like forms, and random strings of letters. (Barclay, 1991; Clay, 1975; Snow, et.al. 1998; McGee & Richgels, 1996) They also begin to use “mock handwriting” (Clay, 1975) or wavy scribbles (Sulzby, 1985) to imitate adult cursive writing. Letter-like forms or “mock letters” (Clay, 1975) are the young child’s attempt to form alphabetic letters, which will eventually develop into standard letters. (Barclay, 1991) When using various forms of writing, children maintain their intention to create meaning and will often "read" their printed messages using language that sounds like reading. (Clay, 1975; McGee & Richgels, 1996; Sulzby, 1985b; Johnson, 1999)

By the age of 5 or 6, children have essentially mastered the language of their culture, a difficult and marvelous achievement. A child’s speaking vocabulary grows from a few hundred words to more than a thousand and they understand many more. In their speech, they have mastered complicated rules of grammar and syntax. Research indicates that the following actions are important for children to become readers:

Reading aloud to children and allowing children to become active participants — responding to predictive and analytical questions, talking about the story or pictures, relating the story to experiences or other stories, pointing out words or sounds, or rereading the same stories
Learning and manipulating the sounds of the language
Developing phonemic awareness — the understanding that speech can be broken down into words, syllables, and sounds
Understanding that words are made up of letters and patterned combinations of letters and learning the alphabet
Providing the opportunity to write. Children learn the function and content of the alphabet through “writing” before they actually can fully write letters and spell words. The early attempts at writing and invented spellings may contribute to beginning reading

Barclay, K.D. What Children Can Teach Us About Emergent Literacy. Illinois School Research and Development, 27(2), 62-69. 1991.

Burns, M.S, Griffin, P., & Snow, C.E. (Eds.) Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Reading Success. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 1999. Available online: http://www.nap.edu/html/sor/

Clay, M. What Did I Write? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 1975.

Hart, B. & Risley, T., Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young Children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes, 1995.

Holdaway, D. The Foundations of Literacy. Sydney, Australia: Ashton Scholastic. 1979

International Reading Association & National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1998). Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children. Available online: http://www.naeyc.org/resources/position_statements/psread0.htm

Johnson, D. Critical Issues: Addressing the Literacy Needs of Emergent and Early Readers. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1999. Available online: http://www.ncrel.org

McGee, L.M., & Richgels, D.J. Literacy’s beginnings: Supporting young readers and writers (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1996.

Snow, C.E., Burns, M.S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 1998. Available online: http://books.nap.edu/html/prdyc/

Sulzby, E. Kindergartners as Writers and Readers. In M. Farr (Ed.), Advances in Writing Research. Vol. 1: Children’s Early Writing Development (pp. 127-199). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 1985.