According to the European Commission's basic skills action plan, literacy is the ability to understand, use, evaluate, reflect orally and in writing using visual, audio and digital materials across disciplines and contexts.

Instead of focusing only on reading and writing, early literacy activities – often called ‘pre-literacy’ – highlight the importance of oral language as a foundation for reading. Conversations, storytelling and exposure to a rich vocabulary help children recognise sounds, sentence structures and meanings long before they start formal schooling.

Effective teaching practices

Evidence-based teaching practices support early literacy. Phonics, which teaches the relationships between letters and sounds, strengthens reading skills. With interactive reading, adults discuss the story with children, which helps to improve their comprehension and critical thinking. These methods, combined with a supportive learning environment, create a strong basis for literacy development.

Several national initiatives encourage early literacy:

• Buchstart is a project in Hamburg, Germany that promotes early literacy by offering ‘Book Start Bags’ for families with young children. Their multilingual website provides practical advice and support for families and teachers.
• Some countries give book gifts to families of newborns to promote early reading habits. Babies born in Estonia are given a book called Pisike puu (‘tiny tree’) to support the family’s interest in reading and promote Estonian children’s literature. In Finland, as part of the Neuvola programme, families of newborns are gifted a bag of books, to encourage parents to read aloud to children from an early age.
• Learning opportunities for children up to age 4 is a project of the Department of Education of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. The project offers publications and videos in several languages for parents and caregivers, as well as professionals in early childhood education, to support early learning and language development.

A language-rich environment

Strong literacy skills can be best acquired through an engaging and language-rich environment that combines structured teaching and informal experiences with language.

The Erasmus+ project The Power of Reading brought together educators from six European countries (Spain, Iceland, Greece, Estonia, Croatia and Italy) to explore and enhance preschool reading methods, resulting in a book of insights and activities.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) contributes to children's literacy development by providing structured yet flexible learning experiences that incorporate play, storytelling and social interaction. The role of the family in early literacy development is crucial.

When parents read with children, engage them in conversation and introduce books at an early age, they help build their child's language interest, motivation and skills. Home-school collaboration is therefore a key factor in helping children develop confidence and a love of reading.