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Literacy Learning In The Early Years – View all blog posts under Articles | View all blog posts about Bachelor of Communication Sciences and Disorders
The benefits of physical activity to a person’s health and longevity are well documented. However, not everyone is aware of the many health benefits of the most common form of mental exercise: reading.
Literacy Learning In The Early Years
The importance of early literacy development for a child’s success at school and in life cannot be underestimated. Although the literacy rate in the US is 99%, researchers estimate that 43 million adults in the US have low literacy skills that affect their cognitive abilities. Giving children books and reading from their first months of life prepares them to succeed in school while strengthening family bonds and promoting children’s health and well-being throughout life.
Literacy In The Early Years
Crayons, Pencils, and Keyboards; Martin-Pitt Partnership for Children; and Nationwide Children’s Hospital reporting these benefits of language and literacy: They build confidence and self-esteem, encourage independent learning, improve cognitive ability, strengthen brain function, improve attention span, and enrich communication skills.
Literacy development is the process of learning words, sounds and language. The acquisition of early literacy skills begins in a child’s first year, when infants begin to distinguish, encode and manipulate the sound structures of language, an ability known as phonological awareness.
It is important to assess a child’s language skills at a very young age, as a delay in literacy development may indicate a language or reading disorder. Research has shown that children learn languages that have consistent sound-to-letter correspondence, or orthographic consistency, more easily.
Activities related to reading in the child’s home are critical to early literacy development. These activities include shared reading, drawing, singing, storytelling, playing games and rhyming.
The Importance Of Observation In Early Childhood Education
Although almost all children have problems with a few sounds, words or syntax of language, some children struggle to reach literacy milestones that are common for their age group. These are among the language problems that young children may have:
Some language development problems are related to hearing loss, so children with language problems should have their hearing checked. Speech language pathologists are able to help children overcome language learning difficulties; they also help parents, carers and teachers overcome children’s language learning difficulties. Children under 3 who appear to have problems with literacy development may qualify for state early intervention programs that help them develop cognitive, communication and other skills.
At this stage, the child focuses on communication and language from others, understanding, and responding. The four aspects of attending and understanding are knowing, seeing, doing and improving:
Infants and toddlers’ early communication efforts focus on what the child wants or needs through facial expressions, gestures, and verbal expressions. The child communicates with others using increasingly complex language and initiates verbal and non-verbal interactions with others to learn and acquire information. Preschoolers learn to vary the amount of information they convey as the situation dictates. They begin to understand, follow and obey the rules of conversation and social interaction.
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Through their interactions with others, infants and children learn new words and begin to use them to communicate and respond. The parent or carer shows an object or action and repeats its name, and also shows words that express feelings and wishes. Preschool children learn to use a wider range of words in different settings and with shades of meaning in specific situations. They also begin to categorize words and understand relationships between words. When children are engaged in a conversation, the person takes every opportunity to introduce the child to new words related to the topic and the setting.
The earliest steps in literacy for babies and toddlers are repeating and using their rhymes, phrases and songs. They begin to physically handle books and realize that they are the source of stories and knowledge. Children begin to recognize pictures, symbols, signs and basic words; understand what pictures and stories mean; and marks that represent things and do actions.
Preschool children begin to understand that language is made up of discrete sound elements that have their own meaning. Singing songs, playing word games, and reading stories and poetry aloud help children become aware of phonological differences in the words, phrases and sentences they use. Through word play, such as calling by name and highlighting the specific sounds of the name, children become aware of the individual sounds that make up words.
Preschool children begin to show that they understand how print is used and the rules of printing. They can identify individual letters and associate the correct sounds with the letters. The parent or carer can highlight the features of print and show children different types of print, such as those used in menus, brochures and magazines. The person can emphasize the relationship between letters and sounds. Reading an alphabet book together helps children connect a letter with words that use the letter and pictures of the objects.
Literacy Learning Outdoors
By hearing and reading stories, preschoolers begin to understand the narrative structure of storytelling and begin to ask questions and comment on the stories. Children are introduced to stories by reading them aloud together, and after several re-readings, they are able to recall their plot, characters and events. They are also able to retell the story using puppets and other props related to the book, as well as their own illustrations and writing.
Preschoolers can introduce writing as a way to describe in their own words a story or event, such as preparing a shopping list before going to the grocery store. They can also be asked to write captions for pictures and photos. Children can be taught the correct spacing of words by writing each word of a sentence on a separate piece of paper. Drawing helps children develop the motor skills needed for writing; instead of a pencil or crayon, they can be encouraged to write using their finger or a stick to write in sand or dirt.
According to The Edvocate, This Reading Mama, and UpToDate, readers should be able to complete the following tasks at each stage of literacy development. Emerging literacy: sing the ABCs; alphabet fluency: see the relationships between letters and sounds; words and patterns: read silently without voice; intermediate reading: reading for ideas and information; and advanced reading: understanding longer texts such as books.
Early literacy usually occurs in the child’s first three years, when the child is introduced to books, stories and writing tools (paper, pencils, etc.). Children learn language, reading and writing skills simultaneously, partly through their experiences and interactions with others. Parents and carers can encourage the early stages of literacy development through various activities:
Screening For Emergent Literacy During Well Visits
The goal of early literacy efforts is not to teach children how to read at a very young age but to prepare them for each stage of literacy development, from the earliest image recognition through reading fluency at ages 11 to 14. The five stages d ‘literacy development is emergent literacy, alphabet fluency, words and patterns, intermediate reading, and advanced reading.
In the first stage of literacy development children acquire literacy skills in informal settings before their formal schooling begins. This pre-literate stage lasts until children are 5 or 6 years old and is characterized by specific pre-reading behaviours:
At later ages in this stage, children may recognize and be able to write the letters in their names, distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters, and identify an increasing number of high-frequency words .
At this stage of emerging readers, children between the ages of 5 and 8 begin to recognize relationships between letters and sounds. These activities are usually observed during this stage of literacy development:
Language And Literacy In Early Childhood
During this transition period that occurs from 7 to 9 years of age, children’s reading fluency improves, and children begin to recognize syllables and phonemes rather than individual letters. Children at this decoding reader stage have a reading vocabulary of up to 3,000 words. Behaviors in this stage include:
By the age of 9 to 15, children start to get ideas from what they are reading. Their reading materials include textbooks, dictionaries and other reference works, newspapers, magazines and trade books. At this stage of literacy development, the child’s reading comprehension is the same as listening comprehension. Here are some of the experiences of readers at this stage:
At the final stage of literacy development, readers can comprehend long and complex text without assistance. They are able to find their own books and other printed material related to a particular subject. Characteristics of readers at this stage include:
Early childhood literacy development involves helping children build language skills, including their vocabulary, ability to express themselves, and reading comprehension. Learning to read is a complex process that children master at their own pace, so it is natural for some children to progress more slowly than others.
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The many individual skills required for reading comprehension can be divided into seven broad categories: decoding, fluency, vocabulary, sentence structure, sentence integration, background knowledge, and working memory and attention.
The skills that make up reading comprehension, according to Reading and Understanding Rockets: 1. Decoding — Pronouncing words. 2. Fluency — Recognize words by sight. 3. Vocabulary — Familiarize yourself with a collection of words. 4. Sentence structure — Understand how words form sentences. 5. Consolidation of sentence —
