Emergent Literacy

Looking at a pictured dog and joining your woof, recognizing the sign of a familiar store, or calling a few scribbled lines rain are everyday beginnings of literacy. Emergent Literacy follows how children move from shared books toward understanding pictures, stories, and symbols, and using their own marks to express ideas.

0–9 months: You help the baby attend to pictures. Talking about familiar people, animals, and objects gives the baby a chance to connect your words with an image; following your point is already participation.
9–18 months: The child begins to join. Pointing, vocalizing, imitating an animal sound, or adding part of a familiar song all count. Understanding can begin with one character, action, or fragment rather than the whole book.
18 months–3 years: Pictures and symbols connect with life. Children talk about stories from pictures, use book words in daily life, and discover that signs, numerals, and their own marks can carry meaning. Recognizing a form and understanding a story are related but distinct gains.

After age 3, these experiences continue through four pathways: Phonological Awareness, Print and Alphabet Knowledge, Comprehension and Text Structure, and Writing.

Note for multilingual families: Use the pictures, signs, numerals, letters, characters, and other written forms your child actually encounters. The exact symbol may differ across languages and writing systems; the developmental focus is discovering that a stable form can carry a name, meaning, or purpose.

Below are selected skills to notice at specific ages. Age is a developmental reference point; understand each skill alongside what you see in everyday life.

6 months

Looks at pictures of familiar people, animals, or objects when an adult points at the person, animal, or object.

What to notice: When you point to a familiar person, animal, or object in a picture, does your baby shift their gaze to it? Following the point is meaningful; one look or a reach for the card does not by itself show recognition of the pictured object or print.

How to support it: Pictures become something two people can attend to together, while adult pointing and talk connect an image with familiar life. Point and name, then follow the baby's gaze, reach, or sound with a response.

Keep in mind: Make looking together meaningful before asking for identification without support.

12 months

Points at pictures in a book.

What to notice: What does your child point to, and do they look at you, vocalize, or touch the image again afterward? A point may invite explanation, share a discovery, or ask to operate the book; use the next response to understand it.

How to support it: Pointing lets a child choose what in a picture they want to understand rather than only listen to an adult. Interpret the interest positively, respond with sound, expression, and a brief explanation, and continue according to the child's reaction.

Keep in mind: Support participation in meaning without requiring fragments to become a complete story immediately.

15 months

Says a few words of culturally and linguistically familiar rhymes and repetitive refrains in stories or songs.

What to notice: When a familiar part appears, does your child hum, add a sound, or say part of a word? Notice participation in and repetition of familiar language, not explanation of rhyme or independent performance of a whole song.

How to support it: Familiar rhythm and repetition provide predictable places to enter language. Sing or read together many times, model a clear short segment, and leave a pause for imitation.

Keep in mind: Respond to a sound, word, or movement as an entry point; the goal is familiarity and participation, not teaching a rule of rhyme.

2 years (24 months)

Asks to have several favorite books read over and over.

What to notice: Does your child bring a favorite book, return to a page, or ask through action or words to do it again? They are not only willing to listen; they have preferences and expectations about the content.

How to support it: Repeated choice of a favorite book shows interest and provides a familiar setting for deeper participation. Respect the choice, pause where the child attends, and receive added sounds, actions, or comments.

Keep in mind: Let the interaction determine what is added rather than making every rereading harder.

Recognizes familiar signs on a building or street.

What to notice: When returning to a familiar place, does your child notice a sign they have seen before? At first, I know this is enough; reading every character or word on it is not required.

How to support it: Recognizing a familiar sign connects a visual symbol with repeated life experience. Use signs for real purposes such as finding a place or identifying an object; once the child notices, name it, confirm, and explain its function.

Keep in mind: Avoid turning all print on the sign into a reading lesson.

Points to things in a book when you ask, like “Where is the bear?”

What to notice: After hearing the name of something in a book, can your child find the matching image independently? Unlike merely following an adult's finger, this links spoken language with the picture and does not require reading print.

How to support it: Finding an image from a spoken name connects linguistic reference with a visual representation. Use familiar names naturally during shared reading and leave time to search and respond.

Keep in mind: If needed, point or narrow the possibilities, but do not replace reading with continuous identification questions.

2½ years (30 months)

Recognizes and uses some letters or numbers, such as letters or characters in one's name.

What to notice: Does your child treat a familiar written form as a named, useful symbol? Use a numeral, letter, character, or other form your child actually encounters.

How to support it: Children discover that stable written forms have names and uses. Follow existing interest by pointing out, naming, and responding to familiar forms within meaningful activity.

Keep in mind: Choose examples according to the family's language environment rather than requiring one universal inventory.

Attributes meaning to some symbols, such as a familiar logo or design.

What to notice: Beyond recognizing a familiar pattern, does your child know what a sign or package tells them—for example, which store it represents or what is usually inside? Using the information differs from matching the shape.

How to support it: When a recognized graphic carries usable meaning, the child connects symbol with place, object, or purpose. Begin with real life experience, ask how the child understands the sign, then confirm and add context.

Keep in mind: Focus on meaning rather than memorizing a logo shape or brand name.

Uses some vocabulary encountered during book reading.

What to notice: Does a word heard in a book enter your child's own expression—for example, using sad later for a similar feeling? Notice connection to an understandable context rather than repetition of the sound alone.

How to support it: Using a book word in daily life shows a connection among picture, story, and experience. Explain content through something familiar, use the word naturally when a related event later occurs, and respond to the child's use.

Keep in mind: When meaning is approximate, extend it within the intended message rather than demanding the original sentence.

Makes scribbles on paper to represent an object or action (and talks about what they have made) even though an adult might not recognize what it is.

What to notice: Does your child give a scribbled mark a meaning—for example, calling a few lines rain or a moving car? Notice representation rather than how realistic the drawing looks.

How to support it: When a child assigns meaning, marks begin to function as expression. Listen to the explanation, respond to what the child says the image means, and demonstrate how pictures or symbols can communicate when helpful.

Keep in mind: Leave content and interpretation with the child instead of naming the work first or replacing it with an adult model.

3 years (36 months)

Uses pictures as a guide to talk about stories during book reading.

What to notice: Using pictures, can your child talk about what is happening rather than only name separate objects—for example, moving from rabbit, cart, pumpkin to the rabbit pushes a cart carrying a pumpkin?

How to support it: Talking about a story from pictures requires linking characters, actions, and events. Begin with what the child notices, model how two clues connect, and use a limited question, restatement, or addition to support meaning.

Keep in mind: Preserve room for the child to tell, point, or act rather than completing the whole account for them.

Sources and notes

Better Parenting’s child-development framework draws in part on the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five. For this pathway, you can also review Head Start’s Emergent Literacy Effective Practice Guide. Official framework sources inform domain, sub-domain, goal, and developmental-progression terminology where applicable. Better Parenting independently organizes the parent-facing What to notice and How to support it explanations and connects them with its own activity library.

The ELOF itself is not a curriculum, assessment, or checklist. Better Parenting’s Skill Assessment and Growth Path are Better Parenting product features, not Head Start assessment tools.

Skill wording and age references on this page come from the Better Parenting child-development framework. A child may show different behaviors in different situations, so understand these examples alongside everyday experience rather than treating one activity as a judgment of an entire sub-domain.

This page helps you understand what you can observe and how you can offer support. To explore your child's current position in this sub-domain, open the corresponding Growth Path in the Better Parenting app and use the Skill Assessment.

Better Parenting Content Team | Updated September 2, 2026