I Can Read!

My early language and literacy development was marked with humorous incidents as well as feats that to this day I find remarkable. My first spoken words were “Aw shit”. I was 1 year of age and I was simple repeating what my mother said frequently in my presence. My older sister taught me how to read at 3 years old. She is 2 years older than I am and was in kindergarten. As she was learning sight words and how to read herself, she would come home after school and teach me. I read my first whole story at 4 years old. It was called “Rico and the Little Red Pony”. The story was in a first grade reading book that belonged to my older sister titled Colors. It was as compilation of stories written specifically for beginning readers.

School played a major role in my literacy development since that is where I learned how to write and where reading was most available to me. My earliest memory of learning how to write was in kindergarten. I remember writing my name often on my homework. Amusingly enough I thought my name was Keko, which is a nickname my grandmother called me often. My elementary school participated in a program called Reading is Fundamental. This program provides free books and literacy services to children all over the country.

My mom also played an important role in my literacy development. She constantly stressed the importance of proper grammar, as well as the importance of reading. My mom never had to force me to read because I loved to do it. She restricted our television watching to mostly educational programs. Reading Rainbow was one of my favorite. One of my favorite childhood memories was my mom taking me and my older sister to the library once a week. She would also purchase us books when we would have book drives at school. I’m extremely glad and appreciative that I received a tremendous amount of support in my literacy development. It helped me advance much farther than I would have if I didn’t have the support and resources that were available to me.