Environmental Reading and Literacy Development

 Many moons ago, I was headed to the mall with my daughter.  As the bus approached the destination, my 18-month-old child cries out “McDonald’s!”   Ok, it was not that clear, but I knew what she was saying, and I knew what caused that reaction.  In front of the mall was the familiar golden arches, and much to my chagrin, my daughter already knew what those arches meant.  It is awesome that she made that connection, I just wish it had not been with a fast-food restaurant!Environmental reading is the ability for a child to read logos or signs usually in their natural context. They are taking the words and symbols used in logos and comprehending that they have meaning.  That the golden arches with the letters “M-C-D-O-N-A-L-D-S” through it means hamburger or restaurant or drink or McDonalds.    The ability to make this association is a huge step towards developing emergent literacy skills. 

As the grown-up, there are many things you can do to support this learning by assisting your child to understand that a sign or symbol with a group of letters together has meaning. 

• Create a book 
• If you are going on a road trip, create a simple book for your child of the road signs or attractions that they may see along the way.  You can make a game out of looking for the signs or practice reading the signs with your child. 
• Kitchen Play 
• If your child has a kitchen play area, use familiar empty boxes in the area such as macaroni and cheese, crackers, or cereal. 
• You can also use the boxes as further letter recognition have having your child hunt for letters on the box such as all the Fs they can find on a box of Frosted Flakes. 
• Label things in your house 
• Make a sign that says “Kitchen” with a fridge and one that says “Bathroom” with a toilet.  Make a label for door with a picture of a door.  Basically, you are making homemade flash cards which are beneficial for letter recognition

When you are out with your child taking a walk, look for signs or symbols around your neighborhood that they recognize.  Ask questions “How do you know that is a bakery?”   Where would we go to buy ice cream?”  We are inundated with environmental print throughout our day on devices, televisions, on billboards and in stores; we might as well utilize it to help our young ones develop their literacy skills in a fun way!