1. Emergent Literacy
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Why Is It Important?

2. Emergent Literacy
Literacy development starts early in life and is highly correlated with school achievement
All of the domains of a child’s development—physical, social-emotional, cognitive, language and literacy—are interrelated and interdependent.
The more limited a child’s experiences with language and literacy the more likely he or she will have difficulty learning to read.
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3. Emergent Literacy
Key early literacy predictors of reading and school success include oral language, Alphabetic Code, and print knowledge.
Well-conceived standards for child outcomes, curriculum content, and teacher preparation help establish clarity of purpose and a shared vision for early literacy education.
Increased demands for program accountability are often heavily focused on assessments of children’s early literacy development.
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4. Emergent Literacy
Highly capable teachers are required to implement today’s more challenging early literacy curriculum.
Teacher knowledge, respect and support for the diversity of children’s families, cultures, and linguistic backgrounds are important in early literacy development
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5. Reading is Key
Therefore, we need to focus on developing strong skills before begin formal reading instruction – especially for children known to be at-risk for later reading problems
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6. Emergent Literacy
Emergent literacy involves the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to conventional forms of reading and writing (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998)
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7. Predictive Skills and Abilities
Oral language
listening comprehension,
oral language vocabulary
Alphabetic Code
alphabet knowledge,
Phonological/phonemic awareness (the ability
to discriminate sounds in words),
invented spelling
Print Knowledge/Concepts
environmental print
concepts about print
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8. Predictive Skills and Abilities
Children’s experiences with the
world greatly influence their ability to comprehend what they read.
What children bring to a text influences the understandings they take away and the
use they make of what is read.
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9. Predictive Skills and Abilities
Children’s experiences with books
and print greatly influence their ability to comprehend what they read.
Reading with adults, looking at books independently, and sharing reading experiences with peers are some of the ways that children experience books.
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10. Children at Risk Children from lower SES backgrounds
Children who are English Language Learners
Children with Language Delays
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11. Emergent Literacy
Emergent literacy skills are the basic building blocks for learning to read and write
Emergent literacy skills begin developing in early infancy and early childhood through participation with adults in meaningful activities involving talking and print
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12. Emergent Literacy
Many candidate emergent literacy skills have been suggested, including
oral language
concepts about print
environmental print
alphabet knowledge
phonological processing skills
visual-perceptual skills
emergent (pretend) reading
emergent (pretend) writing
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13. Emergent Literacy
Consistent evidence exists that there are three primary domains of emergent literacy that are causally related to conventional reading & writing:
Oral Language
Phonological Processing
Print Knowledge
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14. Predictive Skills and Abilities
Oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Oral language provides children with a sense of words and sentences and builds sensitivity to the sound system so that children can acquire phonological awareness and phonics. As they develop their own speech children demonstrate their understanding of the meanings of words and written materials.
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15. Phonological Processing
alphabetic languages like English represent sounds at the phoneme level
“alphabetic principle” of letter-sound correspondences
almost all poor readers have problems with phonological processing
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16. Phonological Sensitivity
Understanding that words are made up of smaller sounds helps children break “the code” between written language (the letters) and spoken language (the sounds).
Segmenting, combining, onset & rime
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17. Print Knowledge
Understanding that it is the print that reflects the words and not other parts of books, like the pictures or the spaces between words
Understanding that there are 26 different letters in English and that letters can look different and still be the same letter, as is the case for upper and lower case letters (or different print styles)
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18. Emergent Literacy
Evidence shows that these 3 skill areas are modular, meaning that their development is distinct….
Means that teaching in one area will not necessarily promote development in others
Means that ideally would focus efforts on all three areas across preschool years
Evidence suggests that focused instruction in all three areas can be successful
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19. Recommendations All children should have access to early
childhood programs with strong literacy
components that include clear adaptations
for children with special needs
Early literacy curricula and teaching
practices should be evidence-based,
integrated with all domains of learning,
and understandable to staff members
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20. Recommendations Early literacy assessment should use
multiple methods and use the information
to improve both teaching and the total
preschool program.
Standards for early childhood professionals
should require staff to meet early literacy
instructional standards.
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21. Recommendations Parent involvement programs should have a
strong early literacy component that guides
parents and caregivers in providing early
literacy experiences at home.
Support for English Language Learners
should be specified and provided in both the
home language and English where feasible.
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