1. Reading Development
Megan Shea

2. Emergent Literacy
Emergent Literacy: Basic knowledge about written language, which lays a foundation for reading and writing development. Parents and adults can promote emergent literacy by modeling, exposure to reading and writing materials and talking about things they have read or written.

3. Positive Characteristics of Emergent Literacy in Young Children
Interest in books.
Eagerness to talk about stories.
Handing books correctly.
Pretending to read.
Using pictures to tell the story.
Asking “what does this say?” about text.
Recognition of familiar logos
Correct identification of letters
Recognition of own name in print.
Production of letter like shapes.
Writing from left to right
Ability to write letters correctly
Ability to write own name
Awareness that specific words are spelled in the same way.

4. Letter Recognition and Phonological Awareness.
Phonological awareness: When children can hear the distinct sounds that make up words. Examples: ~Hearing syllables in words ~Dividing words into discrete sounds or phonemes. ~Blending phonemes into meaningful words. ~Identifying words that rhyme.

5. Phonological awareness develops gradually during the preschool and early elementary years.
Phonological awareness and letter recognition are important factors in children beginning to learn to read.

6. Word Recognition
Children should begin to look more closely at words around age 5.
Children need to have letter sound relationship knowledge first.
Sight Vocabulary: A sizable amount of words that students can identify right away.

7. Reading Comprehension
In it’s basic form, reading comprehension involves understanding the words and sentences on the page.
For advanced readers it means going beyond the page to identify ideas, make predictions and inferences and detect and authors assumptions and biases.
Reading comprehension is a constructive process.

8. General Trends Characterize the development of reading comprehension.
Children’s growing knowledge base facilitates better reading comprehension.
Children become familiar with common structures in fiction and nonfiction texts.
Children become increasingly able to draw inferences from what they read.

9. Metacognition in Reading
Metacognition encompasses children’s knowledge and beliefs about their own cognitive processes.
One of the first aspects of metacognition to emerge is an awareness that reading involves more than identifying words on a page.
As children gain more experience with reading they develop more strategies for comprehension.
With proper support, children and adolescents can learn to use effective metacognitive strategies to improve their reading comprehension as a result.

10. Diversity in Reading
Development of literacy skills occurs with intellectual development.
Children with hearing or visual impairments may be at a disadvantage.
Children with learning disabilities have a disadvantage.
Dyslexia: A disability that gives children trouble learning to read.