Child Development and Emergent Literacy

Abstract

Emergent literacy consists of the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to reading and writing. This article offers a preliminary typology of children's emergent literacy skills, a review of the evidence that relates emergent literacy to reading, and a review of the evidence for linkage between children's emergent literacy environments and the development of emergent literacy skills. We propose that emergent literacy consists of at least two distinct domains: inside-out skills (e.g., phonological awareness, letter knowledge) and outside-in skills (e.g., language, conceptual knowledge). These different domains are not the product of the same experiences and appear to be influential at different points in time during reading acquisition. Whereas outside-in skills are associated with those aspects of children's literacy environments typically measured, little is known about the origins of inside-out skills. Evidence from interventions to enhance emergent literacy suggests that relatively intensive and multifaceted interventions are needed to improve reading achievement maximally. A number of successful preschool interventions for outside-in skills exist, and computer-based tasks designed to teach children inside-out skills seem promising. Future research directions include more sophisticated multidimensional examination of emergent literacy skills and environments, better integration with reading research, and longer-term evaluation of preschool interventions. Policy implications for emergent literacy intervention and reading education are discussed.

Influencia de la Cantidad y el Nombre de las Unidades Gráficas en el Reconocimiento y la Diferenciación Precoz Entre Dibujo, Escritura y Numerales

“…De hecho, solo hacia los 5 años los niños son capaces de diferenciar los escritos compuestos de letras de los escritos compuestos de signos similares (pseudoletras) que siguen las mismas reglas de composición (Martí, 2003). Aunque el conocimiento del nombre de las letras desempeña un papel destacado como precursor de la alfabetización (Snow, 2006;Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998), los hallazgos de nuestra investigación revelan que identificar y categorizar signos gráficos diferentes a partir de ciertas propiedades formales -algunas aprehendidas perceptivamente-, sería un primer momento en la construcción del conocimiento sobre los sistemas de representación. Podríamos pensar que en esta etapa inicial la discriminación de los sistemas indica cierto conocimiento implícito de las representaciones que no se aprecia todavía en la explicitación verbal (KarmiloffSmith, 1992).…”

“…En las culturas occidentales y niveles socioeconómicos (NSE) medios, nombrar letras y numerales es una práctica común entre adultos y niños muy pequeños durante, por ejemplo, la lectura conjunta de libros. Actualmente está en debate el papel de este conocimiento como precursor de la alfabetización (Deckner, Adamson & Bakeman, 2006;Snow, 2006;Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998) y en la competencia numérica (Gunderson & Levine, 2011;Mix, 2009). No obstante, nuestro estudio abordó esta problemática desde una perspectiva distinta, al explorar la relación entre el conocimiento del nombre convencional de letras y dígitos y la diferenciación entre sistemas.…”

Home Environment and Emergent Literacy among Young Children in Iran

“…Furthermore, the experiences, attitudes, and materials that a child interacts with at home effect on child's home literacy environment (Leseman & DeJong, 1998;Sénéchal, LeFevre, Thomas, & Daley, 1998;Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Exposure to books, magazines, newspapers, and environmental print may influence on children's development of learning to reading (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Children with better home literacy environments show higher levels of reading knowledge and skills at kindergarten (Nord, Lennon, Liu & Chandler, 2000) and primary school (Wade & Moore, 2000).…”

“…It has been shown that parents are able to build a home environment that persuades children's learning and communication. Furthermore, the experiences, attitudes, and materials that a child interacts with at home effect on child's home literacy environment (Leseman & DeJong, 1998;Sénéchal, LeFevre, Thomas, & Daley, 1998;Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Exposure to books, magazines, newspapers, and environmental print may influence on children's development of learning to reading (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998).…”

“…The environment is considered as an integral part of emergent literacy development (Sénéchal, LeFevre, Smith-Chant, & Colton, 2001;Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002;Zill & Resnick, 2006). Whitehurst & Lonigan (1998) believed that reading, writing, and oral language may develop in early age when children are exposed to the social contexts in which literacy is an important phenomenon. It has been shown that parents are able to build a home environment that persuades children's learning and communication.…”