Early Learning and Child Care Practitioners: Supporting Children to Make the Connections
From From Birth For Life
Language and literacy development are interrelated. Children with positive early language experiences develop literacy skills, which in turn contribute to language growth. ELCC practitioners play an active role in both language and literacy development. They introduce children to words, sounds, letters, and books and they highlight the relationships among them. The following section outlines a number of key emergent literacy skills as well as empirically based strategies for encouraging successful language and literacy development.
This section describes how practitioners use a variety of evidence-based strategies to build children’s language and literacy skills. It also illustrates the benefits of scaffolding in terms of helping children to develop these skills. For example, when a child is first learning to count, the practitioner may sit with her and provide the names of the numbers through modelling. The next time, the practitioner may sit with the child again to give encouragement and support but only supply the numbers when the child gets stuck. The practitioner will provide less and less support as the child develops the skills and confidence to count by herself. Many practitioners already use a number of strategies, including scaffolding, in a purposeful way but may benefit from learning about research that reinforces these strategies and provides new ideas for supporting language and literacy development in everyday practice.
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Print awareness
One of the activities most commonly associated with
language and literacy development is shared reading.
Shared reading is the interactive reading of a book,
magazine, or other text between an adult and a child
or a small group of children. ELCC practitioners
often read storybooks, information books and other
texts with the children in their care, and in doing
this are fostering print awareness (Justice & Pullen,
2003). When adults and children read together,
children learn about the letters, words and other
characteristics of print. However, young children do
not naturally focus on the print during shared reading.
In fact, during shared storybook reading they
spend most of their time looking at the illustrations
(Evans & Saint-Aubin, 2005). Drawing children’s
attention to print by pointing to the words when you
say them or by asking questions about print features
(e.g., “Where is the title?” or “We know this letter
– it’s an A!”) can help improve word awareness and
alphabet knowledge (Justice & Ezell, 2002). Focusing
on print is most successful when shared reading
takes place in smaller groups (e.g., less than four)
and using Big Books (e.g., books with large pictures
and print) so that everyone can see the text.
Alphabetic principle
Learning the alphabetic principle is important for
long-term reading success (Stanovich, 1986). The
alphabetic principle is composed of two parts: (1)
letter knowledge – an awareness of letters and how
they relate to sounds and (2) phonological awareness
– an awareness of speech sounds and the ability
to manipulate sounds in words (Moats, 1999). The
child who acquires the alphabetic principle has
the ability to associate sounds with letters and use
these sounds to form words (http://reading.uoregon.edu/au/).
Letter knowledge
Knowing the alphabet doesn’t necessarily make
a child a successful reader. Nevertheless, there
is a strong correlation between knowledge of the
alphabet in preschool and kindergarten and future
reading ability, which makes letter knowledge a
powerful preschool predictor of learning to read
(Foulin, 2005). Children do not learn the alphabet
and the relationship between letters and sounds on
their own; they benefit from being explicitly taught
(Aram & Biron, 2004). ELCC practitioners teaching
children about letters and their relationship to sounds
may instruct children by choosing a letter (e.g., “M”)
and planning several activities to increase children’s
awareness of that letter, such as asking the children
to make an “M” recipe by naming “M” words and
putting them in an imaginary mixing bowl. In addition,
children can practice writing the letter “M” or
draw pictures of things that start with “M.” Practitioners
may also facilitate children’s letter knowledge
by reading an alphabet book and pointing and
naming letters in environment (e.g., “The stop sign
has four letters S-T-O-P” or “Your name starts with
the letter B and the sound /b/). Children who engage
in a spectrum of structured activities that foster letter
knowledge learn more letters by the end of kindergarten
than those that do not (Brodeur et al., 2006).
Phonological awareness
Phonological awareness refers to the ability to
recognize and manipulate the individual sounds in
speech. It includes the developing understanding that
speech is made up of sounds (e.g., understanding
that the spoken word “sun” has three sounds
/s/, /^/, /n/). In practical terms, phonological awareness
involves understanding that words break
down into the parts. Linguists refer to these parts as
phonemes, onsets, rimes and syllables (See Glossary
for more details). Children learn about the largest
sounds first and become aware of smaller and
smaller parts over time. First they may demonstrate
their knowledge of sounds by clapping for each syllable
in a song (e.g., Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb). Next
they may identify words that rhyme (e.g., map-tap)
and eventually they will be able to choose which
word does not belong (e.g., hat, house, or dog).
When measured in kindergarten, this awareness of the speech-sound relationship predicts reading ability in the primary school years (Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 1999; NICHHD, 2000; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Children with advanced phonological awareness skills perform better than peers who have similar intelligence, receptive vocabulary, and socioeconomic status (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Although some children have better phonological awareness skills than others, regularly exposing children to this skill enhances reading development for everyone (Blachman, 2000). More importantly, providing support from a young age is particularly critical, because early phonological training remains infl uential well into the elementary school years (NICHHD, 2000).
Many ELCC practitioners help promote children’s phonological awareness through daily activities that focus on the sounds of speech (NICHHD, 2000; Rvachew, Nowak, & Cloutier, 2004), such as singing songs, chanting and reading poems with sound repetition and rhyming. Practitioners also capitalize on teachable moments to raise children’s phonological awareness. For example, during attendance a practitioner may say “Did you notice that Ben-jamin and Mo-ha-med both have three sounds groups in their name? How many sounds groups are in my name? Lu-cy.” Or she may say “Callie and Karen both start with the sound /k/. What sound does my name start with?” Older children may be able to recognize the individual phonemes in a word. Practitioners may encourage them to break words down into parts and blend them back together. For example, the word spill has four phonemes, /s/-/p/-/I/-/l/, and saying those sounds together quickly (i.e., blending) produces the word spill. This task, in particular, is an example of the relationship between letter knowledge and phonological awareness. In breaking down words children name the letters, which may foster letter awareness. Children with greater knowledge of the alphabet, tend to have better phonological awareness skills (Johnston, Anderson & Holligan, 1996).
Phonological awareness can also be enhanced using computer programmes and talking books. Children experience growth in the skills targeted by computer programmes (Lonigan, Driscoll, Phillips, Cantor, Anthony & Goldstein, 2003). Playing computer games that offer practice in rhyming, matching words with the same onsets or rimes (e.g., cat-coat or cape-scrape), and counting the number of syllables or sounds help foster those skills. Practitioners can be flexible with the frequency and nature of their phonological awareness activities; focus on one or two types of activities at a time; work with small groups of children; and be aware of individual variation in developmental level and interest (NICHHD, 2000).
Vocabulary
There is an immense range from child to child in
the amount of language they may be exposed to on
a daily basis. On average, children hear between
250 and 3,600 words per hour (Hart & Risley,
1992; 1995). By age three, a child could have heard
between 10 million and 40 million new and repeated
words (Hart & Risley, 1995). Therefore, a child
exposed to large amounts of vocabulary may hear
as many as 30 million more words than a child with
minimal exposure. This gap may influence vocabulary
development and future school achievement
(Weizman & Snow, 2001).
Despite the differences in early language exposure, the vocabulary development of all children can be promoted and supported in ELCC settings. Practitioners can use new or complex words during playtime and mealtime. They can scaffold children’s understanding of new words by providing definitions, examples or other support that gets the meaning of new words across (Weizman & Snow, 2001). For example, a practitioner may introduce the word “vehicle” by saying, “Sarah, you are playing with many different vehicles. Trucks, cars, and ambulances are three types of vehicles.”
Practitioners also promote vocabulary growth through shared reading. When practitioners and children read together, children are exposed to a variety of new words and phrases and their vocabulary learning is enhanced when they point and label pictures and words (Ard & Beverly, 2004; Sénéchal, Thomas, & Monker, 1995). This learning can be further enhanced through repeated reading activities, e.g., reading a text several times (Justice, Meier, & Walpole, 2005). For example, preschool and kindergarten children learn more new words when they listen to a storybook three or four times than if they hear the story only once (Justice et al., 2005; Robbins & Ehri, 1994; Sénéchal, 1997). Children often initiate this practice by asking practitioners to read the same story again and again. They may also play games and sing songs related to the story, or act out certain scenes. Repeated readings may be beneficial because new words are heard in a context in which the meaning is illustrated by the story. For example, children may learn the word “fangs” because they hear it several times in the story that says “The snake used his fangs to bite and catch the mouse,” and that has a picture showing a snake with big teeth. Hearing the meaning of new words (e.g., “Fangs are very long sharp teeth.”) or answering questions about them (e.g., “Why does the snake have fangs?”) further enhances word learning experiences during repeated reading (Justice et al., 2005; Senechal, 1997).
Writing and written language
Children’s concepts of print and their ability to write
change dramatically from age two through primary
school. Three- and four-year old children generally
assume that all pictures and scribbles are readable.
As they grow, around the age of five they learn
that English writing is made up of specific shapes
oriented horizontally on the page (Bialystock, 1995).
Eventually children learn that writing is made up of
words and that words are made up of letters. During
this developmental process children will write
scribbles and pretend words, which are an important
part of emergent literacy learning. Generally,
they begin by scribbling, then they may use shapes
and eventually letters to create pretend words (e.g.,
“daxy”) or real words with invented spelling (e.g.,
“kr” for the word “car”). With continued experience
children eventually learn to write using the grammatical
and spelling conventions of the language
(Levy et al., 2006).
Learning to recognize and write their name is a critical skill for young children. Four-year-old children tend to know the name and sound of the first letter of their name better than other letters of the alphabet (Treiman & Broderick, 1998). Children learning English, Dutch, Hebrew and possibly other languages all learn to recognize the initial letter in their name by practicing to write their name (Levin, Both- De Vries, Aram & Bus, 2005; Treiman & Broderick, 1998).
Practitioners often initiate joint writing activities which help children not only develop their writing skills (e.g., holding a writing utensil, fine motor ability, etc.), but also build phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and listening comprehension (Aram & Biron, 2004). For example, practitioners can help two-year-olds learn to hold and use a crayon. They can help preschool children to print their name, make a birthday card together, or check items on a list.
As young children learn to form and write letters and words, they learn about the characteristics of written language and how it differs from spoken language. Written language uses words not commonly found in speech. For example, the word “happy” would be used in speech, while “thrilled” or “gleeful” may be used in written text. Written language also contains more complex grammar, such as passive phrases (e.g., “the monster was defeated by the magician”), and decontexualized language (referring to people, places, and things that are not visible to the listener). For example, in spoken language a person may say “He spoke to her over there,” but in writing, without environmental or physical cues (such as pointing), the phrase might be: “David spoke to his sister in the backyard.” The written sentence includes names and descriptions of context that provide the reader with enough information to picture the scene. Children learn about these and other unique characteristics of written language through shared reading and exposure to text (Purcell-Gates, 2001).
Environmental print
Children are sensitive to print in the day-to-day
environment, such as logos (e.g., Lego), signs (e.g.,
stop signs), and labels (e.g., kitchen centre) (Kuby,
Goodstadt-Killoran, Aldridge, & Kirkland, 1999).
Children as young as three can recognize logos and
associate them with the products they represent
(Masonheimer, Drum, & Ehri, 1984). Familiarity
with logos and other forms of environmental print is
a sign of emerging print awareness (Cronin, Farrell,
& Delaney, 1999; Masonheimer et al.; 1984, Whitehurst
& Lonigan 1998).
Children with less access to print materials (e.g., books, magazines, labels, posters) at home or in their ELCC environments have fewer opportunities to interact with literacy materials (McGill-Franzen, Lanford, & Adams, 2002). Providing large amounts of print materials, and displaying them in eye catching and easily accessible ways throughout the centre (e.g., book displays) helps to develop children’s concepts of print, writing, and narrative (Dunn, Beach, Kontos, 1994; Neuman, 1999). Table 5 lists a number of ways to create print-rich classrooms.
Exposing children to print-rich environments is important,
but exposure alone does not necessarily improve
literacy outcomes. Children learn from adult
explanations about the use and value of the print
in the environment. ELCC practitioners who have
benefited from training on how to use classroom
libraries can optimize literacy learning; they tend to
use the materials frequently and benefit from learning
new ways to highlight the connections between
books, words, letters and sounds (McGill-Franzen,
Allington, Yokoi & Brooks, 1999).
| TABLE 5 | |
|
Print-Rich ELCC Centres | |
| |
| (Dowhower & Beagle, 1998; Neuman, 1999) |
Gender
A number of studies of elementary school children
suggest that boys and girls differ in their reading
behaviour and preferences. School-age girls tend to
prefer realistic fiction, while boys prefer more fantasy
fiction (Boraks, Hoffman, & Bauer, 1997). On
average, boys report being less confident about their
reading ability, less motivated to read, and generally
read less frequently than girls (Baker & Wigfield,
1999; McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth, 1995). This is a
pressing issue in the field of education, because several
studies have demonstrated stability in reading
achievement overtime (Juel, 1988). From as early as
kindergarten, boys, on average, achieve lower scores
than girls on reading tests (Chatterji, 2006). There
are concerns that these differences in achievement in
the elementary years could persist through their lifetime
(Phillips, Norris, Osmund, & Maynard, 2002).
One possible method of fostering literacy in both
boys and girls is to encourage them to pursue their
literary interests, whether it is information books,
comics or fairy tales.
There is still much research needed on the relationship between gender and language and literacy however. Along with the generalizations about gender, it is important to respect and accommodate the individuality of each child while still providing a full range of literacy materials in the ELCC centre. Further, before they reach school-age, boys and girls generally show similar book preferences (Mohr, 2006; Robinson, Larsen, Haupt, & Mohlman, 1997). Both groups appear to enjoy fantasy and information books with strong narratives (Robinson et al., 1997). Familiarity with books also appears to play a role in reading preferences at young ages (Robinson et al., 1997). Both boys and girls tend to repeatedly select books that they have read or seen before.
Extended interactions
ELCC practitioners foster receptive and expressive
language development by encouraging talking during
shared reading, conversations and play. Practitioners
can promote these skills by using elaborative
techniques (Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2000; Whitehurst
et al.,, 1988, 1994; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998),
which encourage children to explain and discuss
their ideas and feelings about a book or activity. One
way to do this is to engage children in discussions
before, during and after shared reading (Dickenson
& Smith, 1994). Practitioners can use questions and
prompts (e.g., “What kind of fruit did the very hungry
caterpillar eat?”) because children respond more
frequently to them than to comments (e.g., “The
very hungry caterpillar ate many different fruits”)
(Justice, Weber, Ezell, & Bakeman, 2002). A list of
elaborative reading behaviours is available in Table
6. This list draws on several types of shared-reading
strategies, because to date the different strategies
have not been combined into a single, empirically validated
approach. In general, all of the techniques
encourage active child participation.
In addition to shared reading, practitioners can encourage language development and extended speech by responding to children warmly and sensitively, and engaging in conversations and interactions that focus on the child’s interests (Girolametto & Weitzman, 2002). Children use more words and speak for longer periods of time when playing with an adult, than when playing near, but not with them (Bornstein, Painter, & Park, 2002). For example, if a child is packing a play picnic basket, the practitioner may join in and encourage the child to talk by following up on and extending her actions and verbalizations (e.g., “It looks like you are making a picnic. Where will you be having the picnic?”), and by asking questions and prompting (e.g., “What type of food are you taking?” or “Why is that your favourite food?”). Practitioners are guided by the child’s interests but also by his developmental level. They ask more complex questions to older children (e.g., “What will you do, and who will you invite to your picnic?”) and simpler questions to younger children (e.g., “What songs will you sing at your picnic?”). Fostering spoken language development through responsive behaviour has a long-term impact on literacy, because spoken language skills in kindergarten can predict early reading achievement (Catts et al., 1999).
| TABLE 6 | |
|
Shared Reading | |
|
Encourage the children to participate. | |
| |
|
Provide Feedback. | |
| |
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Adapt your reading style to the children's linguistic ability. | |
| |
| (Arnold et al., 1994; Kaderavek & Justice, 2002; Justice & Pullen, 2003; Massey, 2004) |
Modelling
Modelling literacy is an important way to encourage
children to experiment with literacy themselves.
ELCC practitioners act as models of both language
and literacy throughout their daily interactions with
children. They model a variety of different types of
speech, because they use language differently in different
situations throughout the day (Kontos, 1999;
O’Brien & Bi, 1995). For example, during craft play,
language may be used to keep children focused on
and progressing through the activity (e.g., “What
colour are you going to use next?”) (Kontos, 1999).
During dramatic play, practitioners ask questions
and comment on the activities and objects in the
environment (O’Brien & Bi, 1995). For example, if
the children are setting up a pretend restaurant, the
practitioner may ask, “What is on the menu today?”
or “How do you make these delicious eggs?” While
in the truck and block centres, practitioners may
model non-word sounds (e.g., “vrrrooomm”), and
attention-seeking statements (e.g., “Look how tall
your tower is!”) (O’Brien & Bi, 1995).
ELCC practitioners model reading and writing literacy behaviours by engaging children in literacy activities throughout the day. For example, demonstrating how to hold a book properly and carefully turning the pages provides a model of appropriate book handling behaviour that children can follow. Also, when practitioners use the writing centre and the various writing materials available there, children are able to see how these tools can be used.
Literacy through play
The study of literacy-related play has its roots in
the theories of Piaget (1952) and Vygotsky (1978)
who both suggest that children learn through play.
One critical assumption of the research focused on
learning literacy through play is that play contributes
to literacy development and vice versa (Roskos &
Christie, 2001). Literacy and play are inter-related
in three ways. First, children enhance their play by
drawing on topics and stories they have learned
about through books and conversations. For example,
after reading a story about a race, children may
create a track with blocks and race toys. Or, children
may act out their favourite parts of a story, by
pretending to be the Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle,
1979) and eating all the food in the kitchen centre.
Second, literacy-related activities can be included
in play using literacy materials in play centres. For
example, a kitchen corner might include cookbooks,
labels, coupons, money, measuring cups and paper
to make grocery lists and write recipes. Third,
play is an opportunity to learn about literacy from
adults and peers who model literacy activities (e.g.,
observing a peer writing in a notebook in the science
centre). Children also learn when they act as models
for their peers (e.g., “reading” labels to a friend in
the dramatic play centre).
Part of an ELCC practitioner’s role during free play
activities is to encourage the use of literacy materials.
Children playing in environments filled with
literacy materials use those materials more than
their peers with fewer literacy resources (Christie &
Enz, 1992; Vukelich, 1994). However, providing the
materials is not enough. Children benefit most when
they observe adults modelling the use of literacy
tools, and when they are encouraged to engage in
literacy-related play. In order to hold the children’s
interest, the literacy play materials should be replaced
frequently (e.g., the theme of the dramatic
play centre may change monthly from restaurant, to
post office, to barber shop). Increasing the frequency
and quality of children’s play with literacy materials
improves their literacy skills. Playing in literacyenriched
settings improves children’s ability to read
words found in that centre (Neuman & Roskos,
1993a; 1993b; Vukelich, 1994). For example, children
are able to read the words “exit” and “office”
after playing in an enriched office-play centre. Reading
improvements are greatest for children who are
guided by adult participation in the play centre.
| TABLE 7 | |
|
Literacy Play Materials | |
| Kitchen centre |
|
| Science centre |
|
| Block centre |
|
Literacy through multimedia
Literacy is not simply books and reading. There are
many different forms of information media available,
and children learn about listening, speaking, reading
and writing from numerous sources. Computers are
one source of multimedia text experience. Parents report
that children first start to use computers, with parental
assistance, at around 2½ years of age, and children
begin to use computers independently at 3½ years
of age (Calvert, Rideout, Woodlard, Barr, & Strouse,
2005). Therefore, from a very young age children are
becoming familiar with technology and can benefit
from these experiences. Playing computer games that
focus on sound matching, rhyming games and breaking
words into parts helps to build the phonological
awareness skills of children ages 3½ to 5 (Lonigan
et al., 2003). Electronic stories provide children with
an opportunity to independently interact with stories
before they are able to read conventional print on their
own (De Jong & Bus, 2004). The animated pictures
that accompany the narrative, help promote children’s
understanding of story elements that are not explicitly
stated (e.g., the information “between-the-lines”) (Verhallen,
Bus, & de Jong, 2006).
Educational television programmes (e.g., Between the Lions [Stoia & Sullivan, 2005], Blues Clues [Wilder & Santomero, 2004], Dora the Explorer [Gifford, 2004]) can foster emergent literacy skills (Linebarger, Kosanic, Greenwood, & Doku, 2004; Linebarger & Walker, 2005). Programmes that promote expressive language and vocabulary development are characterized by encouraging interaction with on-screen characters, labelling objects and strong narratives (Linbarger & Walker, 2005). The skills fostered through television viewing are specifically targeted by the programmes (Linebarger et al., 2004). Frequent labelling and repeating new words help promote vocabulary growth, and naming letters, and showing examples of words help promote letter knowledge. However, children benefit from educational programmes differently based on their initial level of skill. Children who have less developed phonological awareness and letter knowledge may benefit from repeated viewings and follow-up support from caregivers (Linebarger et al., 2004). Children may extend their interactions with these television programmes through related computer games, websites and books.