Whether recited from memory, read, sung, or spoken, Mother Goose songs and rhymes are often some of the first literature caregivers share with young children. Look on almost any list of books for new parents and their babies, and you will find that the selection of a good Mother Goose collection is recommended. But why? The answer lies in the dynamic relationship between the use of Mother Goose Rhymes by an adult and child and what we now call emergent literacy.

In contrast to those who subscribe wholly to a reading readiness paradigm, which views children as developmentally unable to read until they reach a certain age, usually around six years old, those who believe emergent literacy theory see a child's acquisition of literacy, both in reading and writing, as a process that begins in infancy. An analogy of emergent literacy to the acquisition of speech is commonly and usefully made, for just as we understand a child's babbling as a precursor to formal speech, so we can understand certain behaviors as precursors to formal reading. Thus, it is important to allow children the natural and joy filled emergence of literary skills before concentrating on decoding of words on the printed page.

Long before theorists began to study children's emergent literacy behaviors, however, caregivers were, quite unconsciously, using Mother Goose rhymes with babies and young children to foster literacy and love. Indeed, emergent literacy theorists recognize that loving interaction between child and adult in a literary moment is a part of what brings about literacy. Thus, we now know that, at least in part, Mother Goose rhymes can function as an avenue for the acquisition of literacy.

Mother Goose lends itself to intimate sharing between an adult and child. A father, rocking a baby to sleep to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Hush-a-Bye Baby sways his child to the rhythm of language, internalizing that rhythm--the stop and start of phrases and sentences, the pattern of a literary voice, the feel of poetry and song. As he sings, again and again, his child hears, too, her first rhymes: star-far, sky-high. Of course, she is too young to understand the meaning of the words, but she understands the feel of the language. The love of her father is associated with that feeling, and so her introduction to language begins.

As the baby grows, this same father continues to share more rhymes with his daughter. Perhaps he sits her on his lap and shares some Mother Goose Rhymes from a picture book. The child begins to associate the words of the rhyme with the words on the pages. She watches her father open the book and turn the pages right to left, tracing his finger along the words from left to right. She begins to know how a book works. One day, when she has learned to sit, her father finds her with this book, upside-down, in her lap, turning the pages and babbling as if she is reading.

Eventually, she begins to read the pictures and, as her father turns a page, she recognizes an illustration of Humpty Dumpty on the page. Before he speaks a word, she coos with delight because she likes the way her father bounces her on his knee and then swoops her down when Humpty falls. Later, when she has learned to speak, she will recite the rhyme when she sees the picture, effectively reading the picture before she can read the words. Still later, knowing the rhyme "by heart" will help her to begin to decode the words on the page.

This child is lucky of course. Her path to literacy began early and in love. Many children are not offered this easy road to reading.

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