“Hi, Ms. Laila!”
The cheerful little voice calling across the schoolyard made me smile. I wasn’t a teacher, but after years of volunteering in my child’s class, I had become a familiar face. Seeing how comfortable my son’s classmates were with me was gratifying.
When my son started kindergarten, I offered to help once a week—despite having a two-year-old, being pregnant with my third, and juggling freelance work. I was busy and often exhausted, but the school let me bring my toddler along, and that made volunteering doable. It was adorable seeing her sit seriously at circle time or color alongside the “big” kindergarteners.
It turned out to be well worth the effort. Not only was I involved in my child’s education and helping our community, but I was rewarded with a level of personal fulfillment and connection that surprised me. That was, ironically, most valuable during the busiest, most tiring seasons of parenting, when it was most tempting to let volunteering slide.
Over the years, I tried to keep a presence in all my children’s elementary classrooms. The form that took changed with my shifting schedule, growing family, and different teachers’ needs—not to mention a long pause during Covid. At times, it felt like a chore I could barely fit in. But every time, whether I went in weekly, monthly, or a couple of times a year, the return on my investment was outsized.
I realize that work schedules, younger children, and other responsibilities make in-school volunteering difficult—or almost impossible—for many parents. But in my experience it’s worth thinking creatively about what’s doable. Even the busiest parent may be able to take a couple of hours off work once a year to help out.
Before you can volunteer, most schools require registration, which can take weeks to process. Get a head start—sign up now, even if you’re unsure when you’ll help. Once approved, check with your child’s teacher to see what’s needed most.
Here are my top 6 reasons for volunteering in the classroom.
It Supports Your Child’s Education
Classroom volunteering makes a direct impact on the students’ education—which is, after all, the point of school. Serving on the PTA, joining the school board, or planning fundraisers all make a difference. And contributing to your child’s schooling however you can is impactful and rewarding. To me, though, volunteering in class gets to the heart of the mission.
Schools are struggling to successfully teach all their students everything they need to know. This impacts everyone, and especially the most vulnerable children. (Read more about the U.S. reading crisis and its unequal impact in Maya’s article on national NAEP test scores, for example.) The education system relies on school volunteers to fill in the gaps of funding shortfalls and learning inequalities.
Helping in classrooms gives school volunteers the chance to directly support students in learning material they need to succeed in the next lesson, the next grade, and the next phase of life. As a volunteer, I’ve read one-on-one with students, practiced multiplication tables with small groups, supported science or art projects, and worked on spelling with kids just learning English.
With each math fact learned, new concept understood, or word sounded out, I could see a child’s path forward getting a little straighter and a little smoother. Along the way, I could also offer words of encouragement and individual support to children in crowded classrooms where the teachers were stretched thin.
It’s Good for Your Child
Volunteering in your child’s class shows them you care about them and value education. It also gives you a window into their academic and social needs.
That doesn’t mean you’ll be working with your own child. Sometimes, you may, but often, you’ll be helping others with individual, small group, or class-wide projects. And that’s a good thing. A thriving classroom benefits everyone—including your child. When all kids are learning and supported, the whole environment improves.
What’s more, kids will benefit throughout their lives if they’re part of a more successful, literate, competent, and fulfilled community. Conversely, they’ll all suffer if a significant number of their peers and neighbors are hampered by inadequate skills.
If your child feels jealous or neglected when you’re working with others, explain that you’re there to support them by helping the whole class succeed. You’ll help them feel better and also offer a valuable model of taking small steps to make positive change.
It Lets You Get to Know (and Support) Their Teacher
Volunteering in the classroom is also a wonderful chance to get to know your child’s teacher. This is meaningful in helping you better support your child’s education and may prove priceless if your child encounters any issues.
It’s also a huge help to teachers to have back-up during the school day. Elementary school teachers have to be “on” all the time—they can’t even take a bathroom break unless there’s another adult in the room.
They have to impart crucial foundational concepts to children who may be at wildly different levels of knowledge and skill development in each subject. On top of that, they have to help kids develop social skills, manage their emotions, and learn basic independence and organizational abilities from shoe tying to remembering their lunches.
At times, what teachers needed most when I volunteered was just for me to put papers in folders, make copies, or sharpen pencils. Those tasks are important, too. Anything that helps lighten the teacher’s load lets them focus more on teaching key material and supporting all the students. Sometimes, even just another grown-up around to calm a boisterous child or pick up some mess makes a big difference.
It Lets You Observe Your Child’s Class
No matter what my volunteer role was, I valued the chance to observe my children’s classes firsthand. There’s nothing like seeing with your own eyes how your child is doing and what their classmates, their teacher, and the overall environment are really like.
If you’ve ever had the experience of asking your little one about their day and gotten one word in return, stepping into their class may be just the ticket. Same thing if you have any concerns about their learning, attention, or behavior.
It can be heart-wrenching if your child complains about problems with other kids, a “mean” teacher, or hating school. Volunteering in the class can give you a clearer picture.
What sounds like bullying might just be normal childhood friction. Complaints about an unfair teacher might stem from the child’s frustration at not getting to chat during math time. And the little one who seems miserable after school may prove full of smiles, laughter, and genuine interest during class—just wiped out by the end of the day.
And if there are real issues to address, time in class may give you the insight to handle them appropriately.
No matter what, go into the class ready to help. Remove obstacles to success for the students and the teacher. Assume good intentions–from the teacher, the other kids, and your own child. If you find something unacceptable, address it politely. People are far more willing to listen when you’ve built a relationship and shown you’re there to support, not criticize.
It’s Good for Your Relationship with Your Child
Volunteering in the classroom builds your relationship with your child. It lets them know that you think their schooling is important and you’re willing to put in time and effort to support it.
Your physical presence also builds your emotional bank account with your child. It’s easy for kids to feel like their parents are always on the computer, on the phone, or at work. Never mind that you may be busy doing things that benefit them, from earning a living to attending a PTA meeting or planning their activities.
Volunteering in their classroom shows your child you care in the way kids, like all of us, understand best—with actions they can see. Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to put in a lot of time to reap the rewards. Showing up and being present makes an impact any time you can do it.
It’s Good for You
It can be hard to make room for one more thing, especially when we feel tired or overworked. (And what parent doesn’t, at least some of the time?) But doing something meaningful can be surprisingly rejuvenating.
Volunteering in your child’s class can make you feel happier, transport you away from your worries or responsibilities for a while, and give you valuable perspective.
Meaningful connection is vital to well-being, and it can be in short supply in modern life. Spending an hour or two with your child’s class may be a source of fulfilling connection that actually helps you to be more productive and energetic in other parts of your day.
That said, it’s important to recognize your own limits, too. If you can’t make it into your child’s classroom for a month, a year, or for years on end, that’s okay too.
If in-class volunteering isn’t possible for you, look for other ways to be involved and keep an open mind about trying it in the future. It also may be that you can arrange for a grandparent or another loved one to become a school volunteer.
Every family’s situation is different. The secret is to find what works for yours right now.
Slime! Kids just can’t get enough of it. It’s squishy, stretchy, and undeniably fun! I know some parents and teachers have a love/hate relationship with slime, but let’s turn that into all love. After all, kids adore it, so why not use it to have some fun together and help them learn?
Alphabet slime pairs messy play with meaningful early literacy practice. All you need is a few simple ingredients and some plastic alphabet shapes to make your own ABC slime packed with letters to explore. You can use alphabet beads, small magnetic letter shapes, or any other letter forms that are small enough to mix into your DIY slime.
More than just messy fun, this activity is a positive way to spark creativity and build important early literacy skills. I’ve found that this kind of tactile, hands-on learning can be a remarkable tool to help kids learn their letters faster and retain them more easily. Plus, the time you spend making it and playing with it together creates such special bonds and memories, which will help fuel their learning and development over the years to come.
Just follow the DIY alphabet slime recipe below with your child. Making it is part of the fun, so be sure to let them help mix it up. Once you and your little one have created your ABC slime together, use it for fun and learning! Your little one will love squishing, stretching, and exploring the slime while finding letters.
You can use it to help your child practice letter recognition, letter sounds, or even spelling. As you play together, simply tell them the names of the letters they find, if they’re just starting to learn the ABCs. Then you can explain what sound that letter usually makes.
If they know some letter names or sounds, ask them to try to identify the name or sound of the letters they find. You can also call out a letter name and ask your child to search for it in the slime. If they’re ready, call out letter sounds—for example, /s/—and have them locate the letter that makes that sound.
Once your child can read, you can even turn ABC slime into a tactile word search! Give your little reader a word to spell with their slime. This could be a spelling word they’re learning, a word they’ve struggled to read, or their own name for a budding reader. (Just be sure your slime has the necessary letters, for example if there’s a double letter in the word.) Then have them search for the letters to spell it. They can easily pull apart the slime to separate the letters to spell a word.
Adapt to your child’s level and the skills they’re learning, and be sure to keep it light and fun. (See How to Teach Your Child the Alphabet for more tips.)
ABC slime is a fun and easy DIY learning tool that’s adaptable for children as they age and their literacy develops. Even better, it’s inexpensive—or free if you have supplies on hand and letter beads or magnets to upcycle!
Ready to mix up some fun? Let’s get started!
DIY Alphabet Slime Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup clear or white PVA school glue
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon saline solution that contains boric acid (check label)
- Alphabet beads, foam letters, or ABC magnets
- Optional: Food coloring or glitter
Instructions
Step 1: Combine 1/2 cup of glue with 1/2 cup of water in a mixing bowl. Stir well.
Step 2: Stir in 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda until fully dissolved.
Step 3: Add your letters and stir to mix evenly. Pay attention to the letters you include. For example, put in letters your child is learning and maybe all the letters of their name, including two of the same letter if needed. If you want to add food coloring or glitter, also add it now.
Step 4: Add 1 tablespoon of saline solution and mix. The slime will begin to form.
Step 5: Knead the slime with your hands until it gets stretchy and less sticky. Add a few more drops of saline solution if the slime is too sticky.
Store your slime in an airtight container, and you can pull it out anytime for a playful learning experience.
When I wrote Reading for Our Lives, I envisioned it aiding a busy mom—someone hustling through the whirlwind of life with young children, but with an eye on preparing them for success in school and beyond. For her, I filled the book with practical everyday strategies to weave literacy into the fabric of family life, from mealtimes and diaper changes to errand runs and playground jaunts.
What I didn’t anticipate was how much the book would resonate with civic leaders, corporate professionals, and others who were far removed from diaper duty but drawn to the power of literacy to shape communities. One such reader is Kevin Long, a commercial litigation attorney at Quarles & Brady in Milwaukee.
Long didn’t set out to become a literacy advocate. But through a journey driven by a series of questions—he’s curious, persistent, and purposeful—he’s become a catalyst for change, urging Milwaukee’s business community to invest in early-literacy initiatives.
Recognizing Root Causes
For Long, service to others has always been central to his life. Guided by Jesuit principles of being “men and women for others,” he and his wife, Peggy, have long sought ways to uplift their community. Professionally, Long drew inspiration from leaders at his law firm, especially attorneys John Daniels and Mike Gonring, who modeled giving back.
When Long heard me speak about early literacy at a Fellowship Open event, a charity golf weekend benefitting youth empowerment programs, something clicked. He left with a copy of Reading for Our Lives, read it, reflected on it, and asked himself, What does this mean for Milwaukee?
He connected the dots between what he read in the book and what he’d witnessed in local schools. “In almost all of them that you talk to, they all correctly state what a great job they do with their students and how much their students learn,” Long shared. “But they will always say that far too often the students come to them, whether they’re a high school or a grade school, and they’re a little bit behind and we need to catch them up in this way or that way.”
Reading for Our Lives helped him see the bigger picture—that success in the K-12 years or even college doesn’t start there. “The development of any person begins in the earliest years,” he said. “The more you can do in the beginning years of a child’s life, the better you’re going to set them up for success down the road.”
Turning Skepticism into Momentum
Inspired but cautious, Long started small. He didn’t make a grand statement or lead a large campaign. Rather, he began hosting meetings with civic and educational leaders, researching existing programs, and asking thoughtful questions. One of his key discoveries was Reach Out and Read, a program that integrates books into pediatric well-child visits, equipping parents with tools to foster reading habits from birth.
“I looked at things skeptically and said, What’s proved to me that this is going to work before we go ask people to invest a lot of money in this?” he explained. What he found was a program with strong evidence, clear goals, and a powerful framework for reaching families through healthcare touchpoints. “When you have a new birth in your family, there’s an invigoration of everything around that child,” Long said. “That sort of energy helps families coalesce around a strategy to do the best for their child.”
Long’s curiosity deepened: Why don’t more families have access to this? What can I do to help? These questions became the foundation of his advocacy. He championed the program, even convening local foundations and philanthropists to explore its potential.
“Milwaukee is small enough that people who care about something will run into each other,” Long noted. “That’s a huge advantage when building relationships and driving change.” His efforts culminated in a single meeting that raised over $100,000 for Reach Out and Read. For his leadership, Long received the organization’s Stellar Partner Award—a testament to the power of thoughtful questions and bold action.
Your Turn
Long’s story proves you don’t need perfect answers or grand plans. Advocacy starts small—by showing up, listening, and asking thoughtful questions. What’s at the root of the problem? Who’s already working on it? How can I help?
Curiosity, not certainty, drove Long’s success. His questions unlocked funding, built partnerships, and expanded early literacy efforts across Milwaukee.
Change starts with curiosity. It grows with connection. And it leads to concerted action. So why not start with a question of your own? Why not you?
Get Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives
There’s evidence that initial memory and learning of voices and language begins before birth. By the third trimester of pregnancy, the sound of a mother’s voice may be transmitted from the amniotic fluid through the fetus’s skull and into the inner ear. So go ahead and speak up. Talk to your baby bump, because exposure to ambient language in the womb likely contributes to their phonetic perception.
Fun fact: Babies learn to perceive vowels before consonants, because “vowels are louder, longer in duration and carry salient prosodic information (melody, rhythm and stress).” One study of newborns in the United States and Sweden found evidence that at less than a day old, babies could distinguish between and reacted differently to vowel sounds from their first (familiar) language and another language. Why? Because they’d been hearing Mom’s voice and getting used to her vowel sounds for weeks prior.
Picture infants, just 20 hours old, lying on their backs in bassinets with sensor-fitted, computer-connected pacifiers in their mouths and padded headphones on their ears. That’s how the researchers tested their hypothesis!
Development from Birth to 6 Months
In the beginning, your newborn baby is speechless, except for a symphony of intermittent crying. They use the only sounds they know to tell you how they feel: whines of discomfort, low rumbles of hunger, and the soft moans of fatigue.
Your challenge is to tend to the immediate need—change the diaper, feed the baby, sing the lullaby—while also recognizing crying’s place in a broader language, learning, and literacy journey. As speech and language therapist Nicola Lathey puts it, “crying is, in fact, nature’s way of enabling a baby to climb the language development ladder!” Waaaaaah!—those long vowel sounds are the seeds of words to come.
By the third month of life, infants add coos (comfort sounds in stress-free situations) to the mix, and win caregivers’ attention and loving responses. It’s easy to overlook the learning happen- ing amid the feeding, clothing, and washing that make up new-born life. But with practice, you can tune in, and you’ll be rewarded with new insights and discoveries. You’ll be able to notice the precious moments when cries become more speech-like in tone, as your little one gradually gains more control of their voice.
Of course, your level of talk and engagement affects your little one’s, so talk and sing at every opportunity. Mealtimes, bath times, and diaper changes are perfect points in the day to make conversation.
Beyond verbal communication, a lot of language development goes on through gestures, facial expressions, and even eye gaze. Infants pay a lot of attention to and learn from what they see, including what they see you looking at. Babies start following caregivers’ gaze between 2 and 4 months old—and evidence shows that they tend to learn more with gaze cues than without them.
Even though they won’t be able to read the words, include books from day one to get yourself into a routine of talking and reading to your baby. By 6 months old, little ones can enjoy hearing and physically exploring books. Board or vinyl books with limited text and unadorned illustrations provide the right-fit visual and tactile stimulation your infant needs. Books with poems and nursery rhymes, too, regardless of illustrations, make it easy to use your voice in a way that will please little ears.
Start sharing books with your baby and begin discovering what they like best. Every baby is different, and yes, they have preferences. It’s fun to see their reactions—reaching for the pages, pushing books away, even falling asleep. From the get-go, your baby is driving their own learning by following their interests and gathering information. Isn’t that incredible?
Although some books make it easier to support your child where they are now, don’t stress about picking the “perfect” first books. There are none. As literacy specialists Caroline J. Blakemore and Barbara Weston Ramirez put it, “Your choice of books is not as important as making the choice to read to your baby on a regular basis.” So choosing books you enjoy is powerful, too.
Judge books by their shortness and sweetness at this age, not their literary merits. You’re likely to hold your infant’s attention on a book for only a minute or two, so you might as well make it a fun, complete experience by picking a book that delivers language and visual interest fast. And here’s a pro tip that Susan Neuman, a professor of childhood and literacy education at New York University, shared with me: “Quit before they get restless. You end at the crest of the wave.”
Select Birth-to-6-Month Milestones & Targets
Oral Language
- Cries
- Coos
- Growls, squeals, blows raspberries, and other forms of vocal play
- Recognizes and responds to your voice
Book Behavior
- Looks at books
- Reaches for books
- Looks at print and images on pages
- Holds chin up to view pages when on tummy
- Prefers to look at higher-contrast images and human faces
Development from 6 to 12 Months
The language-learning journey continues in the latter half of the first year, through back-and-forth exchanges between you and your baby. By this age, babies may respond to simple requests like “come here,” imitate your speech, and shake their head no. They explore the world around them by gazing at and reaching for things, then passing the objects from hand to hand or hand to mouth.
They’re also getting more active in telling you what they think. They make sounds in response to the sounds they hear and to express pleasure or discontentment. They answer to their names, look where you point, and point at things themselves. One study found that when infants made eye contact with a caregiver while gesturing and vocalizing, the caregivers were more likely to respond. And how responsive caregivers were to infants’ gaze-coordinated vocalizations was the best predictor of expressive language development up to 2 years old.
And now, believe it or not, is prime time to make read-alouds interactive. One study found evidence that when moms directed more questions to their 10-month-olds while reading stories, their children had better expressive and receptive language skills at 18 months old than those whose mothers hadn’t engaged with shared books in this way. (Sorry, no dads were included in this research.)
The toddlers who’d been peppered with questions like What’s that? Where’s the doggie? Do you wanna turn the pages? Ready? during storytime as babies showed greater ability to understand what others said to them. They also showed a higher capacity to communicate their needs, thoughts, and ideas using words, phrases, and gestures. So there’s value in reading books and asking related questions, even before kids can answer fully.
Think of books as tools for connection at this age. Play peekaboo with them. Point and name things on their pages. And don’t be alarmed if little ones chew or throw them. That’s learning, too. Book sharing at this age can help kids gain fine motor skills and learn language, background knowledge, print concepts, new words, and more. Along the way, remember they’re
still babies and be attentive to their cues for whether to read more or take a break. Responsiveness is key.
Select 6-to-12-Month Milestones & Targets
Oral Language
- Babbles with long and short strings of consonant-vowel combinations e.g., bababababa
- Babbles may mirror the rising and falling intonation of caregiver questions
- Uses sounds and gestures to capture your attention
- Turns toward sounds
- Recognizes their own name
Book Behavior
- Grasps books using their thumbs
- Pats, strokes, scratches, and chews books
- Moves books from hand to hand
- Directs their eye gaze to large, bright, and/or high- contrast pictures in books
- Points to pictures in books
Edited and reprinted with permission from Reading for Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart, published by AVERY, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Copyright © 2022 by Maya Payne Smart.
Get Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives Development from 4 to 5 Years
Little ones at this point typically can introduce themselves with first name and last, sing a song or nursery rhyme by heart, and tell a story of their own. Ideally, 4-year-olds are also well aware of cause and effect and have developed a good bit of sophistication around language and books. They begin comparing and contrasting favorite characters in different books. They come to see books as sources for answers to questions about the world, like what are clouds? and why does it rain?
It’s time to build some print awareness by talking to your child about how books work, how print conveys meaning, and what words look like. These are vital lessons, because before a child can read print, they must notice it.
Sprinkle in a few comments (max) before or during reading that direct your child’s attention to how books are organized and how print mirrors spoken language. Use your finger to point to letters and words, which helps them connect the marks on the page with the speech they hear and understand.
Select 4-to-5-Year Milestones & Targets
Oral Language
- Uses four-word sentences, like Look at the dog.
- Uses thousands of words and carries on conversations
- Asks wh- questions: why, where, what, when, who
- Answers why, how, and would you questions
- Refers to quantities
- Uses conjunctions, like when, so, if, because
Speech-Sound Awareness
- Recognizes sounds that match and words that begin or end with the same sounds
- Recognizes and produces rhyming words
- Distinguishes, blends, and segments separate syllables in spoken words
- Recognizes single sounds and combinations of sounds
Print Awareness
- Understands that print carries meaning
- Knows print is used for many purposes
Alphabetic Knowledge
- Distinguishes letters from other symbols
- Identifies their own name in print
- Names 15 to 26 upper- and lowercase letters
- Identifies similarities and differences among letters
Emergent Writing
- Forms letters
- Writes their own name
Book Behavior
- Listens to longer stories
- Retells familiar stories
- Understands cause and effect
Development from 5 to 7 Years
By 6 years old, kids typically speak clearly, tell stories with complete sentences, use the future tense, and say their own full name and address. They can count past ten, draw a person with several body parts, and copy triangles and other shapes. They also know a good deal about everyday life, from food to money.
But real differences in their literacy skills become obvious (to them and us) at this point, too. Elementary school classrooms often put reading and writing on display in ways that can’t help but highlight student variations. Everything from the reading group they’re placed in to the work displayed on the bulletin board exposes the differences.
It can be agonizing for parents to hear about the social drama playing out in the name of education—tales of one child being put “on the computer” because they can’t read, another
checking out the same baby book from the classroom library every day because that’s what’s on “their level,” and yet another signing their name with a scribble that’s different every time.
Yet all these kids are on their own unique paths to reading. We just need to clearly identify where they are, so that we can deliver the right experiences, instruction, and additional tools to keep them forging ahead. A few quick definitions, based on what science reveals about how beginners learn to read words in and out of context, will help.
- Prereaders rely on visuals alone to make sense of words. They may recognize a word within the context of a logo—say, Nike or Target—but they are unable to read those same words in plain type without the contextual clues of color or location. They do not yet use letter-sound cues to read or write.
- Beginning or emergent readers, sometimes called partial alphabetic readers, are beginning to apply what they know about letters and sounds to read and write. They demonstrate partial knowledge of how letters map to sounds but can’t yet decode unfamiliar words. They spell phonetically (duz for does, for example).
- Readers have full command of letter-sound correspondences, can decode unfamiliar words, and spell from memory. They’ve forged solid knowledge of the spellings, pronunciations, and meanings of many words through deep experience of hearing, saying, spelling, and understanding these.
Select 5-to-7-Year Milestones & Targets
Oral Language
- Retells stories in sequential order
- Talks about events
- Uses a range of adverbs and adjectives
- Asks and answers complex questions
- Gives directions
Speech-Sound Awareness
- Isolates, identifies, and categorizes individual speech sounds
- Blends individual speech sounds
- Segments individual speech sounds
- Deletes, adds, and substitutes individual speech sounds
Print Awareness
- Tracks print from left to right
Alphabetic Knowledge
- Recognizes an increasing number of upper- and lowercase letters
- Produces letter forms in writing or with materials like Play-Doh
- Matches uppercase and lowercase letters
Emergent Writing
- Writes full name
- Organizes writing from left to right
Phonics/Spelling
- Connects letters to their sounds
- Sounds out words
- Spells phonetically
- Reads and writes simple sentences
- Correctly spells frequently used words
Book Behavior
- Reads independently
Edited and reprinted with permission from Reading for Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart, published by AVERY, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Copyright © 2022 by Maya Payne Smart.
Get Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives Dear Maya,
I’m not comfortable reading. Is it better for me to tell a story to my kid, or is there something different I should do?
Maya’s Answer:
Thanks so much for raising this important question. Many parents who aren’t comfortable reading worry that they don’t have much to contribute to their child’s reading development. But your instinct to do what you can—tell stories and engage verbally—is perfect. The research is very clear: your voice, your engagement, and your questions during everyday conversation build vocabulary, knowledge, and curiosity that are a strong foundation for literacy.
Studies show that telling your child stories supports their vocabulary, narrative skills, and early literacy. This includes telling personal or family stories, cultural tales, or narratives you make up. When parents and children share stories, children get practice with new words, organizing ideas, and understanding how stories work—all of which are important for later reading. At the same time, it’s important to note that there is still relatively little research that specifically examines how these benefits play out for children of parents with low literacy.
You can also share picture books with your child, even if reading the words feels uncomfortable. In fact, there’s a strong base of research to support this approach. Think of the book and its illustrations as a springboard for conversation. Sit together, turn the pages, and talk about what you notice with the characters, emotions, and action in the pictures. You can describe what you see, ask what your child thinks is happening, or make up your own version of the story. This kind of back-and-forth talk builds your child’s vocabulary, comprehension, and connection with you. If getting books is a barrier, your local library, Little Free Libraries, or community book programs can help you keep books stocked at home. You can also check out these tips for getting cheap or free books for kids, tweens, and teens.
Asking questions is another easy, powerful way to grow your child’s language and thinking — no book required. Simple who, what, where, and when questions help toddlers learn new words and speak in longer sentences. As children get older, questions like why, how, and what do you think will happen next? encourage them to explain their ideas, tell stories, and talk about things beyond what they can see. Research shows this kind of back-and-forth talk boosts vocabulary, story understanding, memory, reasoning, and even social awareness.
Talking with your child during meals, walks, chores, or playtime strengthens their oral language, which is essential for reading. Children don’t just need to sound out words—they need to understand them. Your conversation gives them that understanding. Your responsiveness, warmth, and attention are doing real work.
I came up with a framework called the TALK Method to help parents remember to spend more time on brain-building interactions with their small kids. TALK stands for Taking turns, Answering questions, Labeling and pointing out objects (in this case, “labeling” just means saying the name of the item, not putting a physical label on it), and Keeping the conversation going. Learn more about the TALK Method here.
Also, even though you don’t feel comfortable reading to your child, you can encourage them to read to you. Your presence and attention send a powerful message: “Your reading matters.” You don’t have to read along, judge their performance, or correct any mistakes. Just listen patiently, show interest, and celebrate their effort. Your attention will build their confidence, motivation, and persistence—all key ingredients for reading success.
Of course, your child will need support from teachers and others to learn to read. But don’t discount what your words, your attention, and your stories can do. You are already supporting your child’s path to becoming a strong reader. You’ve got this.
Get Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives
Dear Maya,
I’m a Spanish speaker. I can speak some English, but when reading or talking to my child, I prefer to do that in Spanish. Is that good or bad? Should I be reading in English?
Maya’s Answer:
[See below for an answer in Spanish.]
[A continuación encontrará la respuesta en español].
I’m so glad you asked this. Many families wrestle with this question.
The good news is: your desire to read and talk with your child in Spanish is wonderful. In fact, it’s one of the best things you can do for their development. When you use the language you know and love best, you give your child your fullest, most confident self—and all of the vocabulary, knowledge, and connection that comes with it. And that maximizes their language, literacy, and learning.
By talking and reading with your child in Spanish every day, you provide many benefits: natural expression, warmth, word exposure, and cultural knowledge. Reading together in Spanish introduces your child to new vocabulary, ideas, and stories that stretch their thinking. It also gives them valuable knowledge about how books work, including things like how to turn pages and how to track print from top to bottom and left to right. Talking and reading together also build closeness, attention, and trust—the relational foundation that helps children learn.
There is strong evidence that many important early literacy skills transfer with children from Spanish to English (and between other languages), especially the ability to notice and play with the sounds inside words—like syllables, rhymes, and beginning sounds. This matters because both Spanish and English are alphabetic languages, where letters represent sounds in writing. Children can build this skill, called phonological awareness, in any language. This means that when you sing, clap syllables, enjoy rhymes, or point out the first sounds in Spanish words, you’re helping your child with English, too. The skill becomes part of how your child thinks about language more broadly, and it supports learning to read in English later on.
Teaching your child to read in Spanish is beneficial, as well. Spanish has more consistent sound-to-letter patterns than English, which makes early sounding out (called “decoding”) clearer and easier for many children. Research shows that bilingual children who enter kindergarten with stronger reading skills in Spanish tend to make faster progress in English reading than bilingual children who start school with weaker literacy skills in Spanish—even when they speak English better. In other words, a strong literacy foundation in Spanish tends to support faster English reading development.
Using Spanish at home does not interfere with your child’s ability to learn English. Children can develop English through school, peers, and community interactions while continuing to grow in Spanish at home. You can help by connecting your child with teachers, caregivers, libraries, or community programs where they can hear and use English with confident speakers. Surrounding your child with people who feel confident in English ensures they, too, are giving your child their best.
In fact, Spanish—not English—is the language that’s more likely to be lost for bilingual children in the United States, so your commitment to using it at home is important. The more likely risk isn’t that your child will struggle in English because you prioritize Spanish. It’s that, by trying to force English, you could miss the opportunity to raise a truly bilingual child, which is a powerful gift.
Families who maintain high Spanish use at home support children’s growth in both languages, while shifting primarily to English at home often erodes Spanish without clear English gains. So keep going—what you’re doing matters.
Spanish Translation
Me alegra mucho que plantees esta pregunta. Muchas familias realmente luchan con esta pregunta.
Existe una tensión entre hablar y usar y leer en el idioma con el que te sientes más cómodo y dedicar tiempo para apoyar a tu hijo a aprender inglés, el idioma que está aprendiendo en la escuela y en otros entornos.
La buena noticia para ti es que tu deseo de leer y conversar con tu hijo en español es maravilloso, y, de hecho, es una de las mejores cosas que puedes hacer por su desarrollo.
Cuando utilizas el idioma que mejor conoces y más amas, le entregas a tu hijo lo mejor de ti, con todo el vocabulario, conocimiento y las conexiones que ello implica, y eso maximiza su alfabetización y aprendizaje del lenguaje.
Al conversar y leer con tu hijo cada día en español, le ofreces muchos beneficios: expresión natural, calidez, vocabulario, exposición y conocimiento cultural.
Leer juntos en español presenta palabras nuevas, ideas e historias que amplían su pensamiento; también le brinda conocimientos útiles que se traducen entre idiomas sobre cómo funcionan los libros. Cosas como pasar páginas o leer desde arriba hacia abajo, de izquierda a derecha.
Hablar y leer juntos crean cercanía, atención y confianza, base relacional que ayuda a los niños a aprender.
Sí, hay evidencia sólida de investigaciones durante años que muestran que muchas habilidades importantes, especialmente las tempranas para la lectura, se transfieren.
Existe evidencia sólida de investigación a lo largo de muchos años, que demuestra que los niños transfieren habilidades tempranas importantes entre el español y el inglés, especialmente la capacidad de notar y jugar con los sonidos dentro de las palabras, como las sílabas, las rimas y los sonidos iniciales y finales.
Esto importa porque tanto el español como el inglés son idiomas alfabéticos en los que las letras representan sonidos al escribir. Los niños no pueden leer si no distinguen esos sonidos y reconocen las letras que les corresponden al verlas.
Así los niños pueden desarrollar esta habilidad valiosa llamada conciencia fonológica, en cualquier idioma. Cuando cantas, aplaudes sílabas, disfrutas las rimas o señalas los primeros sonidos de palabras en español, también ayudas a tu hijo con el inglés.
Esa habilidad forma parte de cómo tu hijo piensa en el lenguaje y le ayudará a la lectura en inglés más adelante.
De acuerdo, enseñar a tu hijo a leer en español también resulta beneficioso.
El español presenta patrones de sonido y letras más uniformes que el inglés, lo que facilita la lectura inicial al decodificar palabras. Es más claro y fácil para muchos niños.
Investigaciones muestran que los niños bilingües que entran al jardín de infancia con lectura en español más sólida avanzan con mayor rapidez en la lectura del inglés que cuando comienzan la escuela con habilidades más débiles.
Los estudios muestran que los niños bilingües que ingresan al jardín de infancia con habilidades de lectura más sólidas en español tienden a avanzar más rápido la lectura en inglés que los niños bilingües que empiezan la escuela con habilidades de alfabetización en español más débiles, incluso cuando hablan mejor el inglés. Piensa en ello.
Los niños que ingresan como lectores más fuertes en español progresan más rápido en la lectura en inglés que incluso los niños con mayor fluidez oral en inglés en ese momento.
En otras palabras, una base sólida de alfabetización en español favorece un desarrollo más rápido de la lectura en inglés.
Usar español en casa no impide que su hijo aprenda inglés. Los niños aprenden inglés en la escuela, con sus compañeros y con la gente de la comunidad, mientras siguen creciendo en español en casa.
Puedes ayudar conectando a tu hijo con maestros, cuidadores, bibliotecas y programas comunitarios donde tenga oportunidades para escuchar bien y usar el inglés con hablantes seguros.
Rodear a tu hijo de personas que se sienten confiadas en inglés asegura que ellos le estén dando a tu hijo lo mejor.
De hecho, el español, no el inglés, es claramente el idioma que tiene gran probabilidad de perderse entre los niños bilingües en Estados Unidos.
Por eso tu compromiso de usarlo en casa es muy importante. El verdadero riesgo no es que tu hijo tenga problemas con el inglés si realmente ya priorizas el español. Es que al intentar forzar el inglés, aunque no sea tu fuerza para hablar o leer, puedes perder la oportunidad de criar a un niño bilingüe, lo cual es un regalo.
Las familias que mantienen el español como idioma de uso en casa apoyan el desarrollo de sus hijos en ambos idiomas. Si te enfocas más en el inglés en casa, cuando la habilidad no es tu fuerte, el español se debilita y no ves mejoras claras en el inglés.
Así continúa. Sigue hablando y leyendo con tu hijo en español; lo que haces importa.
Get Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives What Makes a Great Children’s Book?
At the Reach Out and Read Annual Meeting in Verona, Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of hearing from Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her talk reminded me that this gem of a resource is available not only to librarians and educators—but to all of us.
The CCBC is a non-circulating library devoted to examining, studying, and researching children’s literature. While you can’t check books out, you can visit, browse, and learn. It’s open to the public, which means parents and caregivers can explore its incredible collection to discover books that inspire, entertain, and expand young minds. So if you’re in Wisconsin—or planning a visit—be sure to check it out.
You can also search its book lists and database of high-quality and diverse books online, then order from your local bookseller or check them out from your local library. The CCBC even hosts live talks exploring new books. Visit their calendar of events to find upcoming presentations or check out the archive of past events.
During her presentation, Schmidt shared how CCBC’s Charlotte Zolotow Award committee identifies outstanding picture books. Their criteria reveal a particular point of view:
- A child-centered focus—featuring young protagonists or issues that matter deeply to kids
- A strong, consistent sense of story, character, and setting
- Language that’s vivid, rhythmic, and engaging to read aloud
- Themes that broaden awareness of the world and human experience
- Stories that delight without preaching or moralizing
The best books, she noted, also carry a sense of honesty and integrity. They use carefully chosen words, fresh ideas, and humor to stretch readers’ imaginations—offering new ways to think about similarity, difference, and possibility.
Listening to her, I found myself reflecting on my own book-choosing habits as a parent. What criteria guide me when I’m picking books to share? The truth is, those standards change as our children grow.
If you’ve got a baby in your lap, a sturdy board book with bright pictures and simple words is perfect—something they can chew, tug, and turn while they listen to your voice.
When your child is a tween or teen, the “right” book may simply be one that holds their interest. My 14-year-old, for instance, gravitates toward stories about high school life, social issues, and the inner workings of the world. For her, a great book is one that feels relevant and real.
Every family’s list will look a little different—and that’s exactly as it should be. In fact, your list for each of your children may vary. The key is to be intentional: to think about what you want a book to offer your little one right now.
- If you’re building early literacy skills, alphabet books can bring their attention to letter shapes and nursery rhymes can help tune their ears to the sounds in words.
- If you’re nurturing identity, books whose characters reflect your child’s background and experiences may top your list.
- If you want to widen their worldview, stories that showcase other cultures, perspectives, and possibilities may fit the bill.
Whatever your goals, take a few minutes to jot down your own 3–5 criteria for what makes a “great” book for your child now. On the flip side, also list out what your personal “no-gos” are. For example, Schmidt gave the example of an excellent picture book with a well-told, compelling story that they did not recommend because it portrayed Asian characters with slanted eyes—a stereotypical and racist depiction.
When we take the time to examine our book choices through the lens of our values and teaching priorities, we move from passive book buyers to purposeful curators of learning.
Get Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives Development from 12 to 24 Months
Kiddos in this age range aren’t babies but haven’t fully grown into the mobility, speech, and expression we often associate with toddlers yet, either. Susie Allison, creator of the popular Busy-Toddler Instagram account, proposes taby (to rhyme with baby) as the name for this group that has “all of the ideas of a toddler but none of the motor skills to make it happen.”
Indeed, these kiddos are stacking blocks, pouring sand and water, nesting cups, and hustling to combine a lot of different skills. Meantime, they’re grasping for the words they need to express themselves, too. One year in and children are beginning to speak: mama, dada, uh-oh, and the like. After 18 months, kids are often talking like crazy and learning several new words a day, so their spoken vocabulary usually takes off.
By 24 months, kids’ vocabularies typically have doubled in size, and most will begin pairing words to create two-word phrases and sentences, such as want ball and car go. The average 24-month-old hasn’t mastered all the prepositions and “glue” words, but they are communicating with clarity and directness. They can point to the pictures and objects you say or that they see in a book. They can name people close to them and some body parts.
Whatever their vocabulary size, keep treating and responding to any speechlike (non-cry, non-digestive) sounds coming from your child as genuine talk. When you respond within five seconds, there’s strong evidence that those “conversational turns” may help bolster your little one’s brain structure and brain function now, as well as their language skills and IQ scores down the road.
Gestures come into play in a bigger way now, too. One-year-olds are already doing some pretty sophisticated coordination of their sounds, gestures, and eye gaze to get your attention. Kids in this age range also shake their heads yes and no and use their arms to signal pick me up or hand me that.
Your little one may even start following your directions to pick up toys or point to an object they want. You can name things in books and ask them to point at them. They may make sense of longer questions from you: Where are Daddy’s keys? They’ll also start asking parents a lot of questions, too: What’s that?
All this early speech and vocabulary learning is critical for later reading, because for an emergent reader to make sense of a word in print, they need to have heard it before. (Or, usually, many times before.)
Selecting books that reflect daily life deepen the learning at this age. Little narratives about kids playing, putting on clothes, or having breakfast may pique your toddler’s interest. You can even make your own books featuring pictures of friends, family, and familiar places. When you make it personal, they’ll pay attention.
Select 12-to-24-Month Milestones & Targets
Oral Language
- Puts two words together, like go inside and more water
- Uses possessives, like my ball and Mommy’s cup
- Follows directions like come here or give me the toy
- Understands and uses words for some familiar objects, actions, and people
- Uses long strings of sounds, syllables, and real words with speech-like inflection
Book Behavior
- Picks up, holds, and walks with books
- Turns pages in board books
- Enjoys being read to
- Recognizes the covers of familiar books
- Points to and names familiar characters and objects in books
- Points to things they want you to name
- Looks at pictures when the object or person in it is named
Development from 2 to 3 Years
Kids may say up to three hundred words and understand even more by 3 years old. Counting aloud while pointing out objects is now a possibility, as are maneuvering puzzle pieces into place and climbing to reach things. Play gets more social. Little ones start watching and copying what their playmates are doing and may even (gasp!) share their toys a bit.
More verbs (run, walk, fall, jump) and more names for places and things (house, park, cake) emerge now, although longer words with more syllables and consonant clusters may still get clipped. An avocado may just be a cado, a banana a nana, a squirrel a skirl. One helpful habit to shore up now is affirming and acknowledging whatever communication attempt they make. Yes, that is an avocado! Yes, it’s a banana! Yes, that’s a squirrel! Whatever they say can be followed with yes, plus a word and correct pronunciation of your own.
At this point, your little one’s conceptual understanding may be taking off. Kids this age often comprehend time and position (today, tomorrow, in, on, and under) and are full of questions, especially why. You have an opportunity here to step up your teaching in two big ways: explaining what words mean and nudging your toddler to use the words, too. You can facilitate this learning just by naming the foods you eat, the clothes you put on, and the objects in your environment, as well as adding in some descriptive terms to support their word knowledge. The cold water, the rough sandpaper, the soft pillow.
In choosing and sharing books, keep in mind that while there’s a time and place for longer children’s literature, you shouldn’t overlook the power of five-minute stories read on a regular basis. It’s not the length of the story but the cumulative impact of engaging with you, print, and oral language that enriches a child’s life and skills.
Many parents learn to love short, colorful books because they can read them in a minute. Knowing that you can make an impact in a minimal amount of time may give you the nudge you need to read to your little one in the moment, versus putting it off in the hope of finding the “perfect” time.
Once you get started, you can always do repeated reading of the same books (toddlers love and benefit from repetition) or read multiple short stories to extend reading time. You just need to get started.
Select 2-to-3-Year Milestones & Targets
Oral Language
- Uses three-word phrases, like Sam is running.
- Says their name when asked
- Asks and answers who, what, where, why, and how questions
- Engages in two or more back-and-forth exchanges in conversations
- Uses some -s, -ed, and -ing word endings
Speech-Sound Awareness
- Hears and produces rhymes and alliteration
- Claps syllables
- Blends syllables verbally, e.g., cup plus cake equals cupcake
Print Awareness
- Recognizes logos in the environment, e.g., McDonald’s
- Identifies a letter or letters in their own name
Emergent Writing
- Scribbles with intentional circles and dots
Book Behavior
- Turns book pages
- Enjoys looking at books independently
- Pretends to read familiar books
- Recalls book characters and straightforward storylines
- Points to and discusses pictures in books
Development from 3 to 4 Years
Kids’ spoken language typically is quite developed at this point. Even total strangers can follow what they’re saying. They’re full-on conversational partners, who answer questions, respond to requests, and speak up if they feel cut off (It’s my turn!). Feelings and everyday life become regular topics of conversation now that they have the vocabulary to support it.
Their attention to and interest in longer stories takes off, and they can show off their comprehension by answering questions about what they just heard. They’re speaking in longer sentences and linking the ideas in those sentences together. They can follow (and appreciate) a clear storyline from beginning to middle to end. You can ask questions during read-alouds that prompt them to think more, guess what will come next, and connect stories to their own experiences. What fun!
You’ll want to stick more closely to the text as printed on the page now, too, if you were prone to freestyling or skipping passages to keep their interest. Making speech-to-print connections is on their horizon, so the verbal-written match should be more consistent. Also, be sure to read nonfiction titles, too, which grab kids’ attention, pique their curiosity, and build their vocabularies.
If books and reading aloud have been a part of your family life since your child’s infancy, they may already recognize some letters, such as their own first initial. Begin gradually, yet inten- tionally, calling attention to more letters at this age—in isolation, in your daily environment, and in the books you read. Point to letters, name them, and describe their lines, dots, and curves.
Select 3-to-4-Year Milestones & Targets
Oral Language
- Speaks clearly and forms four-word sentences, like Mommy is eating breakfast.
- Uses more pronouns: they, us, hers, his, them, her, my, me, mine, you
- Uses possessives: dog’s toy
- Talks about objects and their functions
- Can share something that happened earlier in the day
- Identifies some colors, shapes, and letters
- Follows multistep directions, like Put on your pajamas, brush your teeth, and then get in bed
Speech-Sound Awareness
- Identifies, claps, and counts syllables in words
- Identifies and produces rhymes
- Identifies and produces alliteration
- Isolates and compares initial letter sounds in words
Print Awareness
- Recognizes print in their environment
- Recognizes their own name in print, plus some familiar words
- Names letters on everyday objects, signs, and posters
Emergent Writing
- Makes letter-like scribbles to represent words
- Attempts to print their own name
Book Behavior
- Follows the structure of a story
- Makes predictions about what will happen next in a tale
- Connects text to personal experience
- Points to print as the source of information in a story
- Recognizes and prefers favorite characters in books
Edited and reprinted with permission from Reading for Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart, published by AVERY, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Copyright © 2022 by Maya Payne Smart.
Get Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives Years ago, when I was first introduced to the science of reading, I began to question a lot of the feel-good messaging that often accompanies literacy campaigns. You’ve probably seen the slogans: “Let kids catch you reading!” or “Be a reading role model!” The idea was that seeing adults read could somehow spark literacy in children.
I’d come to understand that kids don’t learn to read just by watching someone else do it—or even by being read to regularly. Instead, most need direct, explicit, systematic phonics instruction to become independent readers. So, in my own work, I chose to focus more on the nuts and bolts of building reading brains through rich conversation and direct instruction, and less on more symbolic-feeling gestures.
That’s why I was surprised—and a little conflicted—when Carl Lennertz, the director of the Children’s Book Council, invited me to be featured in their year-round “Get Caught Reading” campaign. Maybe you’ve seen the posters: authors, artists, athletes, and musicians photographed with one of their favorite books. They’re displayed in classrooms, libraries, and community centers all over the country.
I was honored to be asked—but I had to pause and think: Was this in line with my message that kids need us to teach reading, not merely model it?
In the end, I said yes. Here’s why.
Today’s kids are growing up in a sea of screens. Many of us are reading less. Plus, while many of us are still reading, we’re doing it on our phones and tablets. To a child, it’s not always clear whether we’re deep into a novel or just scrolling through social media. So it feels more urgent than a decade ago that children see adults holding physical books and turning real pages, showing another generation that reading matters, delights, and connects us.
It’s impossible to measure the impact of seeing someone you know, admire, or are simply curious about reading a book. But moments like that stick. Think of the viral headlines when NBA stars are spotted reading on the sidelines—how those images ripple through media and culture, expanding visions of what reading can look like.
I’ve seen that same dynamic play out in quieter ways, too. At a storytime I led, one boy volunteered to read aloud to the class. Then, one by one, four more boys followed—some sounding out words, others narrating pictures—but all newly emboldened by seeing someone like them take a turn in the reader’s seat. These moments, big and small, accumulate. And over time, they help a child begin to believe: books are for me, too.
Plus, as a book lover, I couldn’t turn down a chance to spotlight a book I love and want more people to discover. I chose I Am Every Good Thing by Derek Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James—a powerful, affirming picture book that celebrates the creativity, resilience, and brilliance of black boys. I’m a girl mom, but this book speaks to everyone about worth and possibility. The voice of the boy narrator—bold, proud, and full of life—moves me every time I read it.
Ultimately, the campaign reminded me that literacy happens in community. A poster alone won’t teach a child to read. But it might spark a conversation, a connection, or a curiosity that inspires more reading. It might nudge someone to pick up a book they wouldn’t have otherwise. And in a world where literacy needs all the momentum we can give it, I’m proud to add this image to the mix.
You can check out my poster and others at GetCaughtReading.org. Think of it as one small but joyful way we can keep books visible, keep (or make) reading “cool,” and keep nurturing the next generation of lifelong readers.
Let’s read—and be seen reading.
Get Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives