Early Start

This article describes oral language and early literacy skills in Spanish and English for a sample of 319 bilingual children in Massachusetts and Maryland (ECS) and a comparison group of 144 monolingual Spanish-speaking children in Puerto Rico (PRC). Children were assessed as they entered and exited pre-kindergarten programs. Data collection included four subtests of the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery and a researcher-developed phonological awareness task. Results show that, on average, children in the ECS sample performed below average in both English and Spanish when compared to monolingual norms and, despite some early literacy and oral language gains during their pre-kindergarten year, continue to lag behind monolingual children of the same age. Children in the ECS sample performed better in the early literacy tasks than in the oral language tasks in both English and Spanish. On average, the PRC sample scored significantly better than the ECS sample in Spanish oral language skills, but lower in phonological awareness skills. Educational implications and directions for future research are discussed.

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Dual language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking preschool children

Páez

Tabors²,

López

2007

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

207

134

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“Look at this nest!” The Beauty and Power of Using Informational Books with Young Children

Debbie

Harris²

1997

Early Child Development and Care

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of seeing baby birds. A Nest Full of Eggs (1995) can be read simply for the pleasure of reading a book about birds. However, it can also be used to provide learning and enrichment activities. With this book, a mother or father could introduce new concepts (embryo development) or new vocabulary (albumin) to their child. The book could also inspire ideas for experience-based learning activities, such as how different materials, can be used to construct different kinds of nests. With a parents' help, children can form a model of a nest, using materials suggested in the book. There are many other possibilities for home-based learning suggested by information presented in the book. As a genre, today's informational books can serve to entertain and/or instruct.

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Every Picture Tells A Story—Or Does It?

Liddell

1997

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

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In a previous study by the author, it was reported that South African children in Grades 2 and 3 used very different picture interpretation skills than did a group of British children and showed different patterns of change as they progressed through school. The present study replicates the South African results but uses a larger sample and investigates the picture interpretation skills of South African children more fully in their own right. Results replicated those of the previous study in every detail. In addition, the effects of schooling were more notable than were those of age, and achievement in home language held significant predictive power with regard to all of the categories examined. However, these effects were generally in the opposite direction from those reported for children in the developed world, consolidating and extending the view that children from different cultures may use pictures in rather different ways.

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Early Start

Cited by 5 publications

References 2 publications

Dual language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking preschool children

Dual language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking preschool children

“Look at this nest!” The Beauty and Power of Using Informational Books with Young Children

Every Picture Tells A Story—Or Does It?

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