Children don’t learn to read by starting with phonics worksheets—they begin with listening, talking, imagining, and playing. Pre-reading skills emerge organically when environments are rich in language, storytelling, and joyful exploration. These foundational abilities must be nurtured before formal reading instruction begins.

A recent report shared by 7NEWS Australia warns of a troubling trend: fewer Australian parents are reading to their children. While the headline sparks concern about declining literacy and emotional development, it risks overlooking a deeper reality—one that goes far beyond the bedtime book ritual.

In a world where classroom outcomes are often skewed by postcode, language background, or parental education, one early predictor quietly cuts through the noise: phoneme awareness. As Brady (2020) starkly highlights, this foundational skill outranks intelligence and socioeconomic status when forecasting reading success.

Environmental print refers to the print that children see in their everyday environment, such as signs, logos, labels, and symbols. The following article provides information on Benefits Of Environmental Print, Incorporating Environmental Print in Early Childhood Settings, Examples Of Environmental Print, Activities Related To Environmental Print, Linking To The EYLF and more. 

A literacy-rich environment is one that gives children numerous opportunities to engage in emergent literacy experiences in a meaningful and authentic way. The following provides a list of literacy activities for children that can be incorporated into an emerging literacy environment. 

The EYLF explains literacy as the children’s “capacity, confidence and disposition to use language in all its forms”. Thus literary includes not only talking, listening, viewing, reading and writing but a range of modes of communication including music, movement, dance, storytelling, visual arts, media and drama. The following provides information on the Literacy Rich Environment, Characteristics Of A Literacy-rich Environment, Components Of A Literacy-rich Environment, Strategies and more! 

The Early Years Learning Framework identifies that positive attitudes and competencies in literacy and numeracy are important aspects
of communication and are vital for children’s successful learning. The indicators have been developed to support teachers to extend and enrich every preschool child’s numeracy and literacy learning. The following article provides information on What Are The Indicators, the Importance of The Indicators, Learning Processes, Numeracy and Literacy Indicators and more. 

Hua-Chen Wang, Lecturer in the School of Education at Macquarie University, said that they have found in research that day time nap of children, has positive effects on their literacy skills. More specifically they found that daytime naps influence the learning of letter-sound mapping and reading unfamiliar words.

There are very few research findings are available that establish a positive relationship between daytime naps pre-schoolers literacy skills. In the journal “Child Development,” a study has provided evidence that says the child who has daytime nap is sounder in learning letter-sound mapping techniques.

Reading aloud is one of the best kept secrets. It has tremendous impact on the child’s mind and helps them gain a good start on their education and learning. It also supports children to become emergent readers through the use of repetitive listening and using familiar words while reading.