The document outlines the North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development, focusing on strategies and goals for fostering reading and writing skills in young children. It emphasizes the importance of engaging children with diverse books, supporting dual language learners, and using informal methods to teach phonological and writing skills. Developmental indicators are noted to progress from infants to preschoolers, encouraging a variety of interactive, hands-on literacy experiences without formal instruction.

1. Foundations for Reading and
Writing
North Carolina Foundations Task Force. (2013). North Carolina
foundations for early learning and development. Raleigh: Author.

2. Foundations for Reading Goals
• LDC-8: Children develop interest in books and motivation to read
• LDC-9: Children comprehend and use information presented in books
and other print media.
• LDC-10: Children develop book knowledge and print awareness
• LDC-11: Children develop phonological awareness.
• LDC-12: Children begin to develop knowledge of the alphabet and the
alphabetic principle.

3. Developmental Indicators
• Note the progressive developmental indicators for each goal.
• Early skills begin with infants and progress sequentially through
preschool aged children.
• Some skills related to comprehension and the alphabet are
considered emerging for infants; we cannot yet measure or observe
behaviors that indicate related skills associated with those goals.

4. Encouraging Interest in Books
• Model reading with a various types of books
• Choose appropriate length books, stories, poems, and finger plays for
the age and interest level of the child
• Provide a variety of books (fiction and non-fiction) and print materials
for children to use in all areas of the room
• When children want to hear the same book repeatedly, accommodate
that interest. This is an indication of their interest.

5. Cultural Awareness
• Note that some cultures have different “print conventions” than our
left to right reading and writing.
• Phonological sounds may also vary from one language to another.
Support dual language learners and their families.
• Sound play is more appropriate for phonological awareness than
explicit instruction in phonics for preschool and younger aged
children.

6. Strategies for Infants and Toddlers
• Provide lap time for individual children daily. Read, play with sounds,
and mimic sounds babies make.
• Have books available daily. Choose books that can be easily
manipulated and may be cleaned as needed.
• Make books of children’s families, experiences, and familiar objects
• Place pictures, signs, posters, and print at children’s eye level.
• Model reading and care for books

7. Strategies for Preschoolers
• Provide both fiction and non-fiction books that reflect children’s
interests
• Allow children to choose books for you to read
• Provide books for children to take home
• Share reading and word games ideas with parents
• Provide reading skills throughout room using a variety of delivery
methods and multiple senses
• Provide materials for retelling and acting out stories both indoors and
outdoors

8. Strategies for Preschoolers (2)
• Provide books and stories in child’s home language
• Reflect home cultures of children
• Promote natural opportunities for phonological awareness rather
than formal instruction
• Increase letter awareness in natural occurrences rather than through
formal instruction
• Provide opportunities for all children to participate in reading
activities at their level

9. Foundations for Writing Goals
• LDC-13: Children use writing and other symbols to record information
and communicate for a variety of purposes
• LDC-14: Children use knowledge of letters in their attempts to write.
• LDC -15: Children use writing skills and conventions.

10. Early Writing
• Emerging writing skills may not look like writing as we know it, but
lines and squiggles represent those emerging skills.
• Random letters will begin to show up, but they may be upside down
or backwards. That is typical and does not indicate dysgraphia or
other learning disability at this stage.
• Provide multiple opportunities to draw and write using a variety of
methods, writing materials, and natural experiences.
• Avoid worksheets and formal instruction of letter writing!
• Some adaptive equipment may be necessary for children with fine
motor delays – larger pencils and crayons, special grips, methods for
holding paper

11. Strategies for Infants and Toddlers - Writing
• Provide and adapt art materials for infants and toddlers
• Model using those materials everyday
• Use books, writing, and art materials outside
• Provide literacy related materials in all areas of the room and for a
variety of play activities
• Allow children to tell about their experiences through art and
dictation; teacher writes what children say.
• Make individual and class books with the children

12. Strategies for Preschoolers - Writing
• Provide multiple opportunities for art, drawing, and writing with a
variety of methods, materials, and experiences.
• Encourage play activities that make use of literacy related materials
• Support children in writing at their request and based on their
interest levels; avoid formal instruction in writing
• Write what children dictate about their pictures or experiences
• Help children make individual and class books
• Display children’s writing
• Provide unlined paper rather than worksheets or lined paper