{
  "title": "Child development & literacy glossary",
  "url": "https://materlu.com/en/knowledge/glossary/child-development-glossary/",
  "inLanguage": "en",
  "updated": "2026-07-12",
  "tables": [
    {
      "caption": "Child-development and literacy terms",
      "columns": [
        "Term",
        "Definition"
      ],
      "rows": [
        [
          "Shared reading",
          "An adult and child reading a book together, talking about it as they go."
        ],
        [
          "Dialogic reading",
          "A style of shared reading where the adult prompts the child with questions and builds on their answers."
        ],
        [
          "Emergent literacy",
          "The early skills and knowledge about reading and writing that develop before formal reading."
        ],
        [
          "Phonological awareness",
          "Hearing and playing with the sounds in language — rhymes, syllables and individual sounds."
        ],
        [
          "Phonics",
          "Linking sounds to letters to decode words."
        ],
        [
          "Vocabulary",
          "The set of words a child understands (receptive) or uses (expressive)."
        ],
        [
          "Receptive language",
          "Language a child understands."
        ],
        [
          "Expressive language",
          "Language a child produces."
        ],
        [
          "Milestone",
          "A typical skill most children show around a certain age; a general marker, not a strict deadline."
        ],
        [
          "Fine motor skills",
          "Small, precise movements — like turning pages or holding a crayon."
        ],
        [
          "Gross motor skills",
          "Large movements like crawling, walking and running."
        ],
        [
          "Attachment",
          "The emotional bond between a child and their caregivers that supports security and learning."
        ],
        [
          "Self-regulation",
          "A child's growing ability to manage emotions, attention and behaviour."
        ],
        [
          "Print awareness",
          "Understanding how print works — that text carries meaning and is read in a direction."
        ],
        [
          "Narrative skills",
          "The ability to follow and tell a story with sequence and cause."
        ],
        [
          "Screen-free time",
          "Periods without screens, valuable for play, talk and shared reading."
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "charts": []
}