Emergent literacy in early childhood education

Reflections

What do you observe?

Answers may include:

• The home visitor asks what can be found in the alphabet book and then asks if the mother can find something in the alphabet book.
• Isaiah, the boy, stirs in the bowl and then picks up a plastic carrot and pretends to eat.
• Linea, the girl, points to an object in the book.
• The mother says she sees one, and the home visitor turns the book over to the mother and asks her to turn until she finds something.
• Isaiah climbs into Mom's lap and picks up a piece of plastic melon.
• Mom asks if the children can find an eggplant.

What strategies does the home visitor use to promote emergent language and literacy development?

Answers may include:

• Home visitor engages the mother directly by asking her to interact with her child and the book.
• Home visitor provides concrete objects and visual and auditory cues for the parent and child to help develop language and literacy skills.
• Home visitor models the specific language learning skill she wants the parent to communicate with her child (e.g., "Can you find something in the book [that matches a fruit or vegetable on the floor]?")
• Home visitor establishes appropriate boundaries by encouraging the mother and child to engage in the activity together.
• Home visitor encourages the mother to recreate the experience she models with her children.
• She introduces the book and book reading.

How might the home visitor achieve similar goals with materials found in the home?

Answers may include:

• Take pictures of food and other objects found in the home and make books
• Use food or other objects found in the family's home as concrete objects to match with objects found in a book
• Cut out pictures in magazines to match objects
• Identify objects in the environment
• Read the print on cereal boxes, newspapers, and magazines
• Pretend to write during pretend play (e. g., checks in a restaurant, invoices for purchases, to-do or shopping lists)

What other developmental domains do you observe?

Answers may include:

• Social and Emotional Development
  • The child climbs in the mother's lap
  • The mother speaks to her child gently
  • One of the children smiles during the video clip
• Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development
  • They discuss vegetables and fruits
  • Isaiah grasps and stirs
  • Isaiah balances and climbs on Mom's lap
  • Linea points, using eye-hand coordination
• Approaches to Learning
  • Attention: Both children attend to the home visitor and their mother
  • Curiosity: Isaiah explores the characteristics of the plastic fruit and vegetables
  • Information gathering: Isaiah is learning about plastic fruit with his hands and mouth
• Cognition
  • Pretend play: Isaiah uses the fruit to stir in the bowl and pretends to taste the carrot
  • Connecting experiences and information: Isaiah and Linea are learning and comparing the characteristics of plastic fruit and vegetables, pictures of fruit and vegetables, and real fruits and vegetables in their experience

What other reflections do you have?

Answers may include:

• What more might you like to know about the children and family to support their development?
• What other strategies would you consider to promote language and literacy with this family?

Emergent Literacy: Learn More

News You Can Use: Foundations of School Readiness: Language and Literacy
Infants and toddlers learn about language and literacy through meaningful interactions with nurturing adults. Discover strategies teachers, home visitors, and family child care providers can use to support children's emerging language and literacy skills. A study guide accompanies the resource.

Emergent literacy has been defined as "those behaviors shown by very young children as they begin to respond to and approximate reading and writing acts."

Braunger, J. & Lewis, J.P. (1998) Building a Knowledge base in reading. Newark, DE: International Reading Association (p. 16).

Read more:

Home visiting, Literacy, Language

School Readiness

Resource Type: Article

National Centers: Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning

Last Updated: March 18, 2022

Emergent Literacy

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), 2006

Emergent Literacy: Early Reading and Writing Development

Froma P. Roth, PhD, CCC-SLP
Diane R. Paul, PhD, CCC-SLP
Ann-Mari Pierotti, MA, CCC-SLP

Children start to learn language from the day they are born. As they grow and develop, their speech and language skills become increasingly more complex. They learn to understand and use language to express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings, and to communicate with others. During early speech and language development, children learn skills that are important to the development of literacy (reading and writing). This stage, known as emergent literacy, begins at birth and continues through the preschool years. Children see and interact with print (e.g., books, magazines, grocery lists) in everyday situations (e.g., home, in preschool, and at daycare) well before they start elementary school. Parents can see their child's growing appreciation and enjoyment of print as he or she begins to recognize words that rhyme, scribble with crayons, point out logos and street signs, and name some letters of the alphabet. Gradually, children combine what they know about speaking and listening with what they know about print and become ready to learn to read and write.

Are Spoken Language and Literacy Connected?

Yes. The experiences with talking and listening gained during the preschool period prepare children to learn to read and write during the early elementary school years. This means that children who enter school with weaker verbal abilities are much more likely to experience difficulties learning literacy skills than those who do not. One spoken language skill that is strongly connected to early reading and writing is phonological awareness-the recognition that words are made up of separate speech sounds, for example, that the word dog is composed of three sounds: d, aw, g. There are a variety of oral language activities that show children's natural development of phonological awareness, including rhyming (e.g., "cat-hat") and alliteration (e.g., "big bears bounce on beds"), and isolating sounds ("Mom,  f is the first sound in the word fish"). As children playfully engage in sound play, they eventually learn to segment words into their separate sounds, and "map" sounds onto printed letters, which allows them to begin to learn to read and write. Children who perform well on sound awareness tasks become successful readers and writers, while children who struggle with such tasks often do not.

Who Is at Risk?

There are some early signs that may place a child at risk for the acquisition of literacy skills. Preschool children with speech and language disorders often experience problems learning to read and write when they enter school. Other factors include physical or medical conditions (e.g., preterm birth requiring placement in a neonatal intensive care unit, chronic ear infections, fetal alcohol syndrome, cerebral palsy), developmental disorders (e.g., intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum), poverty, home literacy environment, and family history of language or literacy disabilities. 

Early Warning Signs

Signs that may indicate later reading and writing and learning problems include persistent baby talk, absence of interest in or appreciation for nursery rhymes or shared book reading, difficulty understanding simple directions, difficulty learning (or remembering) names of letters, failure to recognize or identify letters in the child's own name.

Role of the Speech-Language Pathologist

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have a key role in promoting the emergent literacy skills of all children, and especially those with known or suspected literacy-related learning difficulties. The SLP may help to prevent such problems, identify children at risk for reading and writing difficulties, and provide intervention to remediate literacy-related difficulties. Prevention efforts involve working in collaboration with families, caregivers, and teachers to ensure that young children have high quality and ample opportunities to participate in emergent literacy activities both at home and in daycare and preschool environments. SLPs also help older children or those with developmental delays who have missed such opportunities. Children who have difficulty grasping emergent literacy games and activities may be referred for further assessment so that intervention can begin as early as possible to foster growth in needed areas and increase the likelihood of successful learning and academic achievement.

Early Intervention Is Critical

Emergent literacy instruction is most beneficial when it begins early in the preschool period because these difficulties are persistent and often affect children's further language and literacy learning throughout the school years. Promoting literacy development, however, is not confined to young children. Older children, particularly those with speech and language impairments, may be functioning in the emergent literacy stage and require intervention aimed at establishing and strengthening these skills that are essential to learning to read and write.

What Parents Can Do

You can help your child develop literacy skills during regular activities without adding extra time to your day. There also are things you can do during planned play and reading times. Show your children that reading and writing are a part of everyday life and can be fun and enjoyable. Activities for preschool children include the following:

• Talk to your child and name objects, people, and events in the everyday environment.
• Repeat your child's strings of sounds (e.g., "dadadada, bababa") and add to them.
• Talk to your child during daily routine activities such as bath or mealtime and respond to his or her questions.
• Draw your child's attention to print in everyday settings such as traffic signs, store logos, and food containers.
• Introduce new vocabulary words during holidays and special activities such as outings to the zoo, the park, and so on.
• Engage your child in singing, rhyming games, and nursery rhymes.
• Read picture and story books that focus on sounds, rhymes, and alliteration (words that start with the same sound, as found in Dr. Seuss books).
• Reread your child's favorite book(s).
• Focus your child's attention on books by pointing to words and pictures as you read.
• Provide a variety of materials to encourage drawing and scribbling (e.g., crayons, paper, markers, finger paints).
• Encourage your child to describe or tell a story about his/her drawing and write down the words.

If you have concerns about your child's speech and language development or emergent literacy skills, please contact a certified speech-language pathologist. Go to ASHA's Web site at www.asha.org for more information and referrals, or call 800-638-8255.

Early childhood literacy

Preschoolers learn a lot about written language long before they learn to read and write in traditional ways. And this is quite natural: children live in a world full of written symbols. Every day they observe and themselves take part in various activities related to books, calendars, lists and inscriptions. Gradually, they learn to understand how written symbols convey meaning. Children's active efforts to develop literacy skills through informal experiences are called emergent literacy.

Younger preschoolers look for familiar elements of written speech when they “read” fairy tales that they remember and recognize familiar inscriptions. However, they do not yet understand the symbolic function of the printed word. Many preschool children believe that one letter stands for a whole word. At first, they do not even distinguish between drawing and writing. Around the age of four, some of the distinctive features of block text appear in their writing, such as the alignment of figures. However, at the same time, children often use drawing elements - for example, write the word "sun" with a yellow felt-tip pen or draw it in the form of a circle. They express their understanding of the symbolic function of drawings in the “drawing” of letters.

The development of literacy skills is based on speaking and knowledge of the world around. Over time, children's progress in language acquisition and literacy skills begin to support each other. Phonological awareness, that is, the ability to analyze and use the sound structure of colloquial speech, which is evidenced by sensitivity to changes in the sounds that make up words, as well as to rhyme and mispronunciation, is considered an indicator of advanced emergent literacy. Combined with an understanding of the correspondences between sounds and letters, this ability allows children to isolate fragments of speech and associate them with the corresponding written characters. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge also play an important role in this process. In the course of story conversations between an adult and a child, various speech skills are improved, which are of great importance for the development of literacy.

The more informal opportunities for learning literacy skills that preschool children have, the better their speech and emergent literacy, and subsequently their reading skills, are developed. By drawing children's attention to the fact that letters stand for sounds, by playing games with speech and sounds, adults increase children's awareness of the sound structure of speech and how it is displayed in written text. Interactive reading and discussion of the content of the book with preschoolers stimulates different aspects of the development of speech and literacy skills. Children benefit greatly from adult help with writing assignments in the form of a composition, such as writing a letter or a story.

Read about how to support self-learning in early childhood literacy in the Idea Fair section.

Based on materials from the book "Child Development" by Laura Burke.

Fundamentals of the formation of functional literacy of preschoolers

Modern education requires new strategies and approaches. One of the most important tasks of modern education is the formation of functional literacy of a preschooler.

What is functional literacy? Functional literacy is seen as the ability to use all the constantly acquired knowledge, skills and abilities to solve the widest possible range of life tasks in various areas of human activity, communication and social relations.

Functional literacy is one of the most important tasks of preschool education, since preparing children for school requires the formation of the most important competencies already in the preschool period of education. It is necessary to begin to form functional literacy already from preschool age, because it becomes one of the basic factors contributing to the active participation of the child in all types of activities, the need for an active personality of a preschooler, the formation of a high level of communication and social relations.

Pre-school education is the main basis for the formation of functional literacy in a child in the context of the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standard, which is aimed at:

- the formation of mathematical literacy in children of preschool age;

- formation of speech activity of preschoolers;

- formation of cognitive skills in the field of ecology, natural science ideas;

- the formation of social and communicative literacy.

Functional literacy is related to readiness:

- gain knowledge;

- apply knowledge and skills;

- evaluate knowledge and skills;

- to carry out self-development.

If we take the educational program "Inspiration" as a basis for comparison, according to which our preschool educational institution carries out the educational process, then we will pay attention to the factor that the program itself, upon completion of mastering the program for preschoolers of 6-7 years, provides for the above described criteria. Since it is the Inspiration program, starting from the early preschool age, that allows children to learn on their own in the environment to acquire knowledge, apply the existing skills and knowledge in the game, in everyday life, act as an assistant (moderator), and this is precisely what the child’s self-development is. .

As an example, we can consider how functional literacy is implemented through project activities in a group of senior preschool age on the topic "Why birds are so different. "

The Inspiration program allows children, together with the teacher, to choose any question of interest and start exploring it. This happened in our group, during a conversation with children about the time of year, the question “What birds fly to us at the end of winter?” Was raised, and we took this research question as the basis of our project. At the initial stage, we find out what knowledge we have about birds, here the technology of three questions helps us (three questions from planning).

Based on this technology, we begin to develop a plan for organizing the educational process with children.

As soon as we have found out that we have certain knowledge on the subject under study, a plan for the educational process has been drawn up, we begin to acquire knowledge based on the environment around us. Children, applying their knowledge and the resources of their environment, receive products of activity and master certain skills and abilities.

As a result of the acquired knowledge and skills, children learn to share their achievements, evaluate the quality of the work performed.

Using such methods in work, children develop themselves, they themselves look for solutions and answers to their questions, learn to evaluate the results of their work.

As part of the project, children develop literacy:

- mathematical;

- speech;

- cognitive;

- social and communicative;

These activities help to effectively, qualitatively, interestingly form functional literacy in preschool children, while affecting several educational areas that help the child at the preschool age use the acquired knowledge and skills in the game, everyday life, find non-standard solutions to questions posed.

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