OOliteracy Milestones Series: Infants
Looking to find ways to ensure your newborn has a strong literacy foundation? Learn about key literacy milestones for infants aged 0-12 months. You’ll discover the fascinating stages your baby experiences as they begin to understand and engage in the magical dance of language.
Welcome to the wonderful journey of early literacy! As a parent or caregiver, you are about to witness some of the most magical moments of an infant’s life: their first interactions with the world of language. From the first coos and babbles to the enchanting moment they utter their first word, the journey of emergent literacy is filled with joy, discovery, and profound significance.
This post will offer you practical tips to support this exciting adventure towards literacy development.
Infant Literacy Milestones: 0-12 Months
In the first year of life, infants are like little sponges, absorbing the sounds, rhythms, and language patterns around them. Knowing literacy milestones gives you a general gauge of your little one’s development and helps support you in giving your little one just what they need at each turn.
Literacy Milestones | 0-3 Months | 3-6 Months | 6-9 Months | 9-12 Months |
---|---|---|---|---|
Begins listening and responding to familiar voices, such as turning head towards the source of sounds. | ✔ | |||
Begins to make cooing sounds. | ✔ | |||
Development with vision and gaze allows for establishing eye contact and the ability to focus on high-contrast objects. | ✔ | |||
Begins to distinguish rhythm and melody in speech, distinguishing between different tones and pitches, leading to experimentmentation with vocal cords: babbling to produce repetitive consonant-vowel combinations like “ba-ba” or “da-da; cooing and gurgling. | ✔ | |||
Begins to recognize familiar objects and people. | ✔ | |||
Responds to pictures of baby faces. | ✔ | |||
Begin to imitate sounds and gestures, such as waving or clapping hands. | ✔ | |||
May begin to explore books by looking, touching and mouthing them. | ✔ | |||
Responds to hearing their name. | ✔ | |||
Shows interest in looking at pictures in books, if for only short periods. | ✔ | |||
Begins to understand simple words like “mama” and “dada”. | ✔ | |||
May begin to explore books by looking, touching, and mouthing them. | ✔ | |||
Understands and may respond to basic commands like “please”, “clap hands”, and “wave bye-bye”. | ✔ | |||
Begins to use deliberate gestures like pointing, patting, and waving to communicate. | ✔ |
Bright Beginnings: Literacy Activities for Babies
Let’s explore some ways to nurture emerging language skills specifically for babies aged 0-12 months.
Singing lullabies and rocking, swaying, or gently patting your baby in time with the music.
Narrating your daily activities, describing what you’re doing, seeing, or hearing, and pointing out and naming objects.
Engaging in games like “Peek-A-Boo” and nursery rhymes with simple actions like “Pat-A-Cake” that encourage imitation and anticipation.
Paying attention to your baby’s attempts to communicate, whether through words, gestures, or facial expressions.
Using very brief and engaging interactions, understanding that infants have short attention spans.
Repeating nursery rhymes regularly to help build familiarity. Repetition is key in fostering language development.
Click this link for our list of classic nursery rhymes and songs for little ones.
Reading aloud and looking at pictures together using simple board books or cloth books with high-contrast images.
Providing sensory-rich experiences with touch-and-feel books and colourful textured cards or books to touch and feel.
These are a great tool to encourage more tummy time as well!
Name and point to different parts of the body, such as “nose,” “ears,” and “fingers” during playtime or diaper changes.
Providing objects and toys that are developmentally appropriate that encourage reaching, grasping, and exploration.
Nurturing Little Minds, Sparking Big Dreams
Click to Explore Our Categories
I’m happy you’re here!
Hi, I’m Julie, the passionate creator of Ox & Owl Literacy. I enjoy empowering families and educators with wonderful resources to inspire fun, imaginative, and joyful learning opportunities for young kiddos. You’ll find lots of recommended books, reading resources, and creative learning activities on this site aiming to help children fall in love with language, books, reading, and the transformational power of stories.