Early literacy implies all skills related to literacy which are acquired during the period before formal education. Components of early literacy are phonological awareness, vocabulary, narration, print motivation, print awareness and letter knowledge. The period of early literacy is extremely important for the academic success of the individual, but it also affects other aspects of life. Considering the fact that the specified period is preschool period, children spend most of their time with their parents. Because of that, parents play major role in the development of early literacy skills. The aim of this research is to provide an overview of the scientific literature about parental participation in encouraging early literacy and also about parental level of information about ways to encourage early literacy. The structure of this research consists of theoretical basis of literacy, early literacy, early literacy components and overview of researches about parental involvement in the activities of early literacy. Parental education affects their self-confidence and their feeling of capability of encouraging early literacy. Highly educated parents have more faith in their own capability in contrast to parents who have poor education. The latter parents engage significantly because they want their children to be more succesful than themselves. Highly educated parents provide fun early literacy activities and poorly educated parents provide more work materials and are oriented to direct teaching. It is absolutely necessary for parents to become more aware of their own importance in their child's literacy development. Experts, such as speech and language pathologists and kindergarten teachers, are responsible for raising awareness about the importance of encouraging early literacy skills.