Becoming literate is a complex task for young children. They pay attention to the language around them and can read environmental print, such as their favorite food labels or billboards. Most young children with attempt to write things that matters to them, such as printing their own names and those of theirs family members and pets.

They usually pretends to write and read as fluently as adult do, for instance, scribbling rapidly to imitate the literate adult’s hand writing or talking while looking at a newspaper. Young children often pretend to read a pictures as prop. Their retellings incorporate words and phrases from the text of the book, and often they will memorize the entire text of favorite book. But it isn’t just having books around, as important as that is, that invites children into the world of literacy,

see more at Brewer Jo An (2007), Introduction to Early Childhood Education: Preschool Through Primary Grades, Pearson: USA P 328-329.
An expert Speaks: becoming literate, Mary Renck Jalongo, Indiana University of Philadelphia.