Being able to read and write with ease does not just open up imagination and learning, it also helps us to thrive and cope in a world increasingly based on complex information from coding to utility bills. Everyone wants children to make the best start with literacy, but despite the existence of evidence-based programmes of instruction, some do not respond as hoped at first, or show a fade in learning in later school years. This book is about why that happens, and what we can do about it.

Drawing on research and the wide expertise of its authors, it sets out how lifelong literacy is based on crucial aspects of early child development and how these can be assessed and improved in classrooms. The book focuses on five core emerging literacy skills that underpin successful learning for children: concepts of print; phonological awareness; oral language; working memory and executive function; and pencil control. Chapters:

Guide the reader on how to build the foundations of lifelong literacy, as well as easy-to-do, unintrusive means to assess the different strengths and gaps that learners have. Explore how teaching and learning can be adjusted so that all can learn and make progress. Contain inexpensive and playful, but effective and practical, ways to develop the skills in an ordinary classroom or home. Are accompanied by a downloadable practical toolkit of resources to use with children.

Educators who use this book and reflect on and adapt its ideas, will be more confident in what they are doing, with an enriched understanding of why it fits the children they are educating. It will be crucial reading for early years educators, primary classroom practitioners, educational psychologists, and speech and language therapists.