Emergent literacy refer to the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are presumed to be developmental precursors to conventional forms of reading and writing and the environments that support these developments. They are skills and knowledge about literacy that children acquire before they learn to read, such as knowing how to hold a book and turn the pages, knowing that words and stories are contained in the print on the page, and knowing that the print on signs and labels contains information.
Lexicon of Psychology - Terms, Treatments, Biographies,