Metalinguistic Awareness,Reading and Spelling: Roots and Branches of Literacy

Studies on the role of metalinguistic awareness in emerging literacy have established that metalinguistic abilities at phonological, syntactic, print and pragmatic levels are linked to later attainments in literacy. Few have examined the interplay among these skills and developing reading and spelling. Using time-reversed path analyses, this study explores the possibility that metalinguistic awareness registers stronger direct effects on literacy than early pre-conventional reading and invented spelling skills. Sixty children aged 54 months (initially) were given measures of metalinguistic abilities, pre-conventional reading and invented spelling on three occasions. This allowed the exploration of reciprocal relationships between pre-conventional reading, invented spelling and metalinguistic abilities. On the fourth occasion, standardised tests of reading and spelling were administered. Results from time-reversed path analysis show that pre-conventional reading and invented spelling influenced each other across development and had stronger direct effects on subsequent literacy than did aspects of metalinguistic awareness. Pre-literate metalinguistic abilities were shown to affect pre-conventional reading and invented spelling skills and combine with these to influence further growth in literacy. The study’s results have implications for current models of literacy development.     

When is a Frog a Book or a Book a Frog?

During early childhood, children adopt a design-based conception of books with increasing consistency. It is not clear if or how young children spontaneously indentify the myriad of commercially produced, book-related props, toys, and other materials as support for their early literacy activities. Guidelines for evaluating these supplementary materials are presented and thirteen books are reviewed and recommended.     

Using Literature to Support Low Literate Parents as Children’s First Literacy Teachers

Parents are viewed as children’s first literacy teachers. As such, they are often encouraged to book share and read with their young children. Low literate parents may lack not only basic reading skills, but also second order skills related to sharing books successfully. Early childhood professionals are encouraged to form a dynamic, reciprocal relationship with parents wherein everyone learns and supports the literacy needs of children. Seventeen current children’s books are reviewed and recommended for sharing with children and families.     

The impact of teachers' beliefs on the literacy experiences of young children: a New Zealand perspective

There has been a growing focus in New Zealand on the early literacy learning of young children. This emphasis has challenged early childhood teachers to ensure there are appropriate literacy events within their programme. The aim of this study was to identify early childhood teachers' knowledge and beliefs about literacy learning and examine how these translated into literacy practices. Four early childhood settings were chosen—two sessional kindergartens and two full‐day early learning centres. Eight early childhood teachers from four different centres were interviewed. All teachers held a recognized early childhood qualification and were working within the framework of Te Whaariki, the New Zealand early childhood curriculum. Five children in each setting were observed using narrative observations. All teachers were committed to providing meaningful and purposeful literacy experiences within a play‐based programme. However, although teachers had created rich early literacy environments, there was some tendency toward formal skills‐based interactions. The children themselves created many opportunities for authentic and rich literacy events.     

The role of drawing in young children's journeys towards literacy

The focus of this article is the role of drawings in the journeys of young children towards literacy. The argument is that young children learn from home contexts a wide range of approaches towards literacy. At school their flexibility in using these approaches is reshaped into narrow versions of literacy based on learning to read, write and become numerate. Children continue to explore alternative modes of representation at home and amongst their peer group in informal learning contexts outside school. The argument is illustrated with examples from a project, which followed the changes in seven young children's drawing behaviours as they made the transition from home to school. It is suggested that we need a radical reappraisal of what it means to be a literate child in 2004; and that the literacy curriculum in early childhood settings needs to be reframed to reflect this reappraisal.     

Pre-K Music and the Emergent Reader: Promoting Literacy in a Music-Enhanced Environment

Emergent literacy may be nurtured in an early childhood environment that integrates literacy experiences with meaningful music activities in which young children develop skills necessary for success in both areas simultaneously. Early childhood educators can develop the knowledge and skills needed to bring music into the classroom as an engaging and stimulating element of literacy education.     

Young children’s reading for pleasure with digital books: six key facets of engagement

This paper offers a new characterisation of young children’s (2–8 years) reading for pleasure (RfP) with digital books. This characterisation is rooted in a re-contextualisation of Anna Craft’s conceptualisation of twenty-first century childhoods in Creativity and education futures (Stoke on Trent, Trentham, 2011) and a review of the literature concerning young children’s RfP with digital books. The paper develops Craft’s (2011) work by considering the ways in which digital books can resource the ‘4Ps of digital childhood’ in reading for pleasure. Six facets of reader engagement, nested within Craft’s (2011) 4Ps, are presented: affective, creative, interactive, shared, sustained and personalised reading engagements. It is argued that this characterisation of young children’s reading engagements can enrich our understanding of the affordances of digital books in relation to RfP in the twenty-first century. The paper thus offers an important new contribution, going beyond established work in the field, which typically explores digital books in relation to children’s learning, product design or developmental outcomes.     

北宋的幼帝教育与儿童图画书的诞生

世界儿童图画书的诞生可以追溯到北宋的幼帝教育。有证据表明,中国是世界上最早出现儿童绘本读物的国家。宋代儿童图画书的诞生过程,展示了宋代版画及图书出版的盛况和政治教育功能。该论题的探究,对当代图书出版的政治功能和儿童教育颇有启发意义。     

Books and Good Stuff: A Strategy for Building School to Home Literacy Connections

Engaging young children in literacy activities at home is one way for families to augment and enrich the home literacy setting and to participate in their child’s education at an early age (St. Pierre et al. in Dev Psychol 41(6): 953–970, 2005). Burgess et al. (Read Res Quart 4(4): 408–426, 2002) suggested that the resources families have at their disposal, the quality of literacy role models provided by parents, and the types of literacy and language activities in which parents and children engage, are all related to young children’s developing literacy and language abilities. Other studies demonstrated that even modest literacy-promoting interventions can significantly enhance a young child’s early literacy environment by increasing the frequency of parent–child book-sharing activities (Weitzman et al. in Pediatrics 113(5):1248–1253, 2004). Dever (J Early Educ Fam Rev 8(4):17–28, 2001) and Dever and Burtis (Early Child Dev Care 172(4):359–370, 2002) emphasize the use of family literacy bags for early childhood development. Developing and sharing take-home literacy bags is an exciting literacy-promoting activity that may be shared with children and families to provide support for emergent literacy. This article explores the development of the BAGS (Books and Good Stuff) take-home literacy kits and provides suggestions for content, construction, implementation, and evaluation. Sixteen current books are reviewed and recommended by theme.     

A Model for Involvement of Fathers in Literacy Development with Young At-Risk and Exceptional Children

Early involvement in literacy activities can provide many benefits for at-risk and exceptional children and their fathers. These benefits include development of children's reading and writing skills, increased bonding, and positive self-esteem of fathers. Early childhood professionals can foster male involvement by describing benefits, suggesting appropriate activities, materials and expectations, and by providing ongoing feedback. A model for getting fathers involved in literacy activities with their young at risk and exceptional children is described. The four major approaches in this model are early social interaction, reading books, incidental preliteracy activities, and school involvement.     

Early Warning Signs of Functional Illiteracy: Predictors in Childhood and Adolescence

Early childhood, middle childhood, and early adolescence determinants of functional literacy in adulthood are investigated, using 20-year longitudinal data from a sample of black children of teenaged mothers from the Baltimore metropolitan area. Document literacy was assessed by a test that consisted of a subset of items of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) adult literacy test. The Baltimore sample is compared to the NAEP sample. Family environmental factors, early childhood developmental level, and educational career factors were considered as predictors of young adulthood literacy. Preschool cognitive and behavioral functioning is highly predictive of literacy in young adulthood, even when the effects of family environmental characteristics, including living arrangements, the quality of the home environment, maternal education, and income, are controlled. Grade failure in elementary school is also associated with literacy, but this effect disappears when the measure of preschool abilities is controlled. Family environmental factors that are predictive of literacy include maternal education, family size in early childhood, maternal marital status, and income in middle childhood and early adolescence. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Using the Scientific Method to Guide Learning: An Integrated Approach to Early Childhood Curriculum

Researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in how early childhood programs prepare young children for science. Due to a number of factors, including educators’ low self-efficacy for teaching science and lack of educational resources, many early childhood classrooms do not offer high-quality science experiences for young children. However, high-quality science education has the potential to lay an important foundation for children’s knowledge and interest in science as well as reinforcing and integrating critical language, literacy, and math readiness skills. This paper examines the current research on science in preschool classrooms and provides suggestions on how to teach science that supports children’s development across domains. Using the scientific method to explore science with young children provides a systematic model for engaging children in observation, questioning, predicting, experimenting, summarizing, and sharing results. These processes encourage children’s use of language, literacy, and mathematics skills in authentic ways. Suggestions are provided for teachers to use the scientific method as their guide for generating scientific discovery in their classroom.     

Literacy Practices in Head Start and Early Childhood Special Education Classrooms

A preliminary study was conducted to investigate the literacy experiences of preschoolers in Head Start and early childhood special education (ECSE) class- rooms. Two groups of teachers (10 Head Start teachers and 20 ECSE teachers) completed surveys that gathered information relative to the literacy activities occurring in their classrooms, the priority given reading and writing goals, and their attitudes about the literacy development of their students. The results indicated similarities between the two groups of teachers regarding the relatively low priority placed on reading and writing goals at preschool, and the ways in which children were involved in reading activities. The two groups differed in their use of supportive interactions during TV viewing-and writing/drawing activities, and the expectations the teachers held for the children's future literacy abilities. The need for further research describing emerging literacy practices with at-risk and disabled groups of children is discussed.     

(Re)affirming identities: implementing a play-based approach to learning in the early years of schooling

Learning through play has traditionally been a central tenet in early childhood education, however, in recent times primary schools have begun to consider the benefits of introducing a play-based approach into early years classrooms to support young children’s learning, especially in the areas of language and literacy. This study focuses on the introduction of a play-based approach to a Foundation classroom (first year of formal schooling) in one Catholic primary school in Victoria, Australia. Taking a qualitative approach, drawing on interpretivist theory, data collection methods included group interviews with two Foundation teachers and their Early Years Coordinator at different points during the year, and two classroom observation sessions. This paper considers some of the challenges these teachers experienced and how they interpret and make sense of their work and the consequences this has for their identities as teachers. The data highlight tensions for these teachers that relate to issues of accountability and legitimisation.     

Globalisation,global English: ‘futures trading’ in early childhood education

This paper explores my thinking about the issues which surround globalisation and Global English and their connections with the literacy practices, literacy events and futures for young children in home and out‐of‐home communities or institutions such as kindergartens, childcare or the early years of school. Exemplars from Australia and Singapore are provided to highlight these issues and the possible risks or benefits for children and families that seem to flow from globalisation processes. Central to the purpose of the paper are provocations for the field of early childhood education in order to further the discussions on how we respond to the challenges of connecting between the local and the global in our role as policy‐makers, parents, teacher educators or early childhood teachers.     

Loving and Learning with Wemberly and David: Fostering Emotional Development in Early Childhood Education

Children enter the world with simple emotions and gradually add complex feelings to their repertoire of skills. As children grow and develop, they learn to label their emotions and regulate them in socially appropriate ways. Literature is one way early childhood educators can foster healthy emotional development. This article explains how emotions develop during the preschool years (3–5), shares why it is important for early childhood educators to understand the connection between emotional and literacy development, and suggests books and strategies that can be used to enhance young children’s emotional and literate lives.     

Using Microsoft<Superscript>®</Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">PowerPoint</Emphasis>™ to Support Emergent Literacy Skill Development for Young Children At-Risk or Who Have Disabilities

The increasing availability and use of technology applications for teaching emergent literacy skills in early childhood education settings nationwide requires that early childhood education professionals develop skills with readily available software programs. This paper provides general recommendations in using Microsoft^® PowerPoint? to support emergent literacy skill development for young children at-risk or who have disabilities. Specific suggestions are presented in the areas of phonological awareness, alphabetic principles, comprehension, concepts about print, and vocabulary development.     

Selecting picture books featuring characters with autism spectrum disorder: recommendations for teachers

We read 48 children's books featuring characters with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to determine which books would be appropriate for use during read-alouds in early childhood classrooms. We conducted a search on Amazon for children's books on ASD published after 2010 and identified 50 books that met the following criteria: (a) the book was a picture book for young children, (b) the main character had ASD, (c) the book was not a skill-building book for children with ASD, and (d) the book received more positive than negative reviews from readers on Amazon. We evaluated books for visual and literary content and accurate portrayal of ASD characteristics. We then showed books to special education professionals, general-education teachers, and education professors for their input. Through this review process, nine books were identified as appropriate for read-alouds in early childhood classrooms. We also contacted authors of select books to gather information on their experience with ASD. Overall, we found that the characteristics of books we selected featuring characters with ASD were different from the characteristics of children's literature typically used for class read-alouds. We therefore present recommendations for teachers to use when selecting children's books featuring characters with ASD.     

Early childhood literacy: Creating a better world

Abstract

Problem‐posing teaching using multicultural children's literature nourishes an integrated literacy curriculum that supports young children's meaningful learning. This method encourages integrated learning that is both developmentally and culturally meaningful through interacting with story, reading literature, and participating in related learning activities. The problem‐posing method was developed by Paulo Freire [Education for Critical Consciousness, Seabury, New York] and critical pedagogists. The method leads students of any age, experience or ability level to base new learning on personal experience in a way that encourages critical reflection. This method has not been widely used with younger learners, but lends itself well to integrated early childhood literacy development.

This article shows selected qualitative data samples from case studies of early childhood teacher education students as they experience the method in a literacy course and as they use the method with young children. A critical analysis of the students’ work draws out key points regarding literacy development in a rapidly changing world. The teacher education students’ work provides an arena for developing the theory further as they implement theoretically‐based pedagogy with young learners. Data reveal issues regarding critical literacies and postmodern approaches to early childhood education.