Early Literacy Specialists

We are a team of five individuals who support and promote early literacy through the Ontario Early Years Initiative in the Eastern Ontario Region. We serve early years practitioners who work with individuals, families and groups of children, pre-natally to six years of age.

Where do we work?

• We are housed in the Parent Resource Centre, as part of the Ontario Early Years Initiative
• We work with the Ontario Early Years Centres, their satellites and partner agencies.
• Our services are available in Ottawa, Stormont, Dundas & Charlottenburg, Prescott, Russell & Glengarry and Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke.

What are our services

• Visits to support and advise people at drop-ins and child care centres
• Referrals for families and practitioners to programs such as First Words and Mother Goose
• Links to adult literacy programs
• Train professionals and parents on early literacy
• Provide research materials and a reference library on early literacy.

Desired Program Outcomes:

• Improved school readiness
• Improved parental and community ability to support early literacy and language development in young children
• Increased general awareness of early brain development and the importance of positive stimulation and nurturing

What is early literacy?

• The set of skills that children will use to learn to read, to write, and to communicate.
• Early literacy begins prenatally
• It combines a child's ability to speak, to listen and to experience, with their ability to understand, to create and to talk about the ideas, events and experiences in their world.
• Early literacy skills evolve in relation to a child's interaction with their family and community environment.
• Key components are language play with rhymes, songs, books, and make- believe play.