The EYLF explains that literacy develops
from birth as humans strive to express
feelings, exchange thoughts and connect
with others through gestures, sounds and
language.
From infancy, children use sound, gesture
and body language to communicate their
needs and feelings. As Julie Campbell notes
in her book Everyday learning about talking
(Campbell, 2005, pp. 3–5):
We know all the words, but babies show
us what they’re interested in. They ‘lead’
the conversation by pointing or holding
out something for us to see.
In early childhood settings, we are aware
of how amazing babies and toddlers are
at communicating. And we know that
caring, responsive interactions are vital for
children’s wellbeing and language learning.
Julie goes on to explain that oral language
or ‘talk’ sets the scene for literacy:
In the first two years, before children are
talking a great deal, they are listening
and learning about what language is
and what language does … At about
six months, babies begin to ‘tune in’ to
the sounds of the family language. The
sounds they make will become more and
more like the sounds they hear in the talk
around them.