'I found this book to be very useful and would recommend it to all infant teachers, especially those working with children with special needs... It gave me plenty of new ideas, and would be especially helpful to newly trained teachers' - REACH

Many young children need targeted support and encouragement to help develop their literacy skills. This book contains tried and tested activities to improve listening, verbal reasoning and language skills in young children and shows you how to turn theory into fun, practical ideas for the classroom.

The author shows how to link activities to the Early Learning Goals and the National Literacy Strategy and the book includes:

- lesson activities using puppets, nursery rhymes, story boxes and picture books;

- suggestions for using role-play;

- ideas for organising your play setting to encourage literacy-related play;

- lesson plans;

- assessment guidelines;

- lists of resources;

- a selection of photocopiable material.

This book is a valuable resource for those working with children aged 3 to 8 and those working in playgroups, day nurseries, nursery schools and reception classes will find it particularly useful. It suggests ways to improve young children's literacy skills and can also be used as an INSET resource to share with the whole staff.

Hilary White is a freelance writer, consultant and teacher. She lectured for many years in an early years training college.

Developing Literacy Skills in the Early Years - sidottu, Englanti, 2005