Pre Literacy Skillzzz

This summer, at the book sale formerly known as Brandeis, I picked up a box set of Junie B. Jones books for my nephew, Alex.  He is five years old, so they are a couple of years ahead of him, but Ramona the Pest proved that he can sit still and listen to chapter books.

Today, when they all came over for lunch, not-quite-two-year-old Ainslie was holding one of those books.  She had it open, pointed to things on the pages, turned them and jabbered away.  Oftentimes, mentioning the name of my dog.

Looking at her, I remembered something a schoolteacher friend told me about young children.  The establishment of something called pre-literacy skills.  Things like:

1. Holding the book the correct way
2. Turning the pages correctly
3. Knowing the words go from left to right and top to bottom

So I mention this to my sister-in-law, another schoolteacher, and she agreed.  She added that Ainslie's jabbering had inflections to it, as would ours when we read aloud.

She is going to be a reader!