Developing a love of reading Early Literacy

Reading to children from an early age is a great way to encourage early literacy and communication development. It helps children develop language skills and expand their vocabulary as well as their creativity and imagination. Reading together is also a great opportunity to build fond memories. The library is a perfect way to introduce your family to a love of reading and a wonderland of stories. Read on to find out how.

Connect with others

Georges River Libraries hold regular story and rhyme time sessions across our library branches. These face-to-face sessions are led by library staff to help familiarise children and their parents with sounds and language through rhymes, stories, and movement.

Track your progress

BeanStack is an app you can download that supports readers of all ages engage in reading activities and challenges. It includes book and activity logging where you can track progress and earn badges to encourage engagement and a love of reading. This is a great tool for all ages and can be accessed through your library membership.

For parents

Stories provide ways that children can learn about themselves and others – toilet training, moving house, and starting school –as well as challenging topics – divorce, bullying, and death - that sometimes can be difficult for parents to find the right language. Our Raising Readers is a bundled selection of books covering different topics to help your child’s development.

How to support your child’s love of reading

Birth to 12 months

Allow children to touch and handle a variety of picture books. Select board books including ‘touch and feel books’ that are easy for babies to handle. You can have your baby on your lap and look at large pictures with simple words, sentences or sounds. At our libraries, we have books with CDs available in our collection.

12 to 24 months

Select books with topics and experiences that are familiar to toddlers where they can recognise pictures from their own lives and environment. Books that encourage sounds and actions will help engagement and speech development for example recognising animals and their sounds “meowmeow”, “woof-woof”, or words that represent sounds (onomatopoeia) “Boom”, “Crash”.

2 – 3 years

Choose books where pictures give clues to meanings of words. When reading, encourage your child to point out names and actions they know about in the pictures. “What colour is the ball?” “What is the bunny doing?”

3 – 5 years

Let your child choose books about topics they’re interested in and explore more facts about them. Ask your child about their own experiences in relation to picture books. “What games do you play at school?” “Do you remember a time when it was raining? What did you do?”

For more information about Georges River Libraries or to find your closest branch, visit the Libraries page on Council’s website