Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network
Lectures on Language, Literacy and the Next Generation
Investigating At-Risk Factors for Early Literacy Development:
An Interdisciplinary Perspective

The lecture sites will be linked via teleconferencing, which will be coordinated from the University of Calgary.

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Talking with children: The road to literacy.
Location: Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL
Health Sciences Complex, Room H2958
Time: 7:30 pm

Background Readings:
* Hart, B. & Risley, T. (1995) Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. (pp. 175-189). Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.., Inc.
* Peterson, C. & McCabe, A. (2004) Echoing Our Parents: Parental Influences on Children’s Narration. In M. Pratt & H. Fiese (Ed.) Family Stories and the Life Course Across Time and Generations (pp. 27-54). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
* Tabors, P., Roach, K., & Snow, C. (2001) Home Language and the Literacy Environment. In D. Dickinson & P. Tabors (Ed.) Beginning Literacy with Language (pp. 111-138). Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.., Inc.

- Click here to view more reading material.
- Click here to view a summary of research on children's memory for injuries requiring emergency room treatment, presented in power point.

 Close Abstract 

Abstract We will present a review of research that links parental talk to children's preschool and pre literacy skills. The storytelling/narrative skills of preschool children will be compared as related to their language environments. Research has shown that there is a stunning difference in the number of words a child hears prior to kindergarten and that this difference has an impact on the language, vocabulary and IQ of a child. We will talk about the factors that influence these differences, particularly socioeconomic status. An overview of one intervention that we believe can help combat this problem will be provided and we will illustrate to teachers, early childhood educators etc... ways in which they can assist the parents they work with to effectively use the intervention tools.

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