This booklet summarizes some of the best practices in helping infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers maximize their language skills prior to school entry. Children who are well prepared by their parents, caretakers or pre-school teachers can readily manage the transition to the academic demands of the early school years and are more likely to learn to read successfully. Recent research on the development of first languages illustrates that spoken input in a child pre-school years is crucial for thinking, problem solving, social communication and academic functioning. The information presented here has been selected for its relevance to caretakers of young children. We have focused on the pre-kindergarten years because many of the relevant skills that teachers expand have their origins in the parent/child communication that begins at birth.