There has been little research comparing the
nature and contributions of language input of mothers and
fathers to their young children. This study examined differences
in mother and father talk to their 24 month-old children.
This study also considered contributions of parent education,
child care quality and mother and father language (output,
vocabulary, complexity, questions, and pragmatics) to children's
expressive language development at 36 months. It was found
that fathers' language input was less than mothers' language
input on the following: verbal output, turn length, different
word roots, and wh-questions. Mothers and fathers did not
differ on type-token ratio, mean length of utterance, or
the proportion of questions. At age 36 months, parent level
of education, the total quality of child care and paternal
different words were significant predictors of child language.
Mothers' language was not a significant predictor of child
language.
Abstract reproduced with permission of ScienceDirect:
www.sciencedirect.com.
About half of 2,581 low-income mothers reported
reading daily to their children. At 14 months, the odds
of reading daily increased by the child being firstborn
or female. At 24 and 36 months, these odds increased by
maternal verbal ability or education and by the child being
firstborn or of Early Head Start status. White mothers read
more than did Hispanic or African American mothers. For
English-speaking children, concurrent reading was associated
with vocabulary and comprehension at 14 months, and with
vocabulary and cognitive development at 24 months. A pattern
of daily reading over the 3 data points for English-speaking
children and daily reading at any 1 data point for Spanish-speaking
children predicted children's language and cognition at
36 months. Path analyses suggest reciprocal and snowballing
relations between maternal bookreading and children's vocabulary.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com
To understand difficulties in early literacy
most research has focused on print related knowledge. Knowing
about print, however, is only one aspect of reading and
may neglect how successful early readers also develop capacities
to enter the text world and make sense of it through a personal,
relational experience. To explore this other aspect of early
literacy I examined the wordless picture book readings of
18 children aged 5 and 6 prior to their ability to decode
print. Analyses imply that the development of 'self that
reads' might be described as a process of movement along
a continuum over which a complex, flexible, dialogic self-system
develops and which then influences the kind and amount of
transactional relationship a reader has with a text. Acknowledging
the importance of the developing 'self that reads' during
childhood may deepen definitions of emergent literacy and
broaden our approaches to young readers.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
This paper reports on a study that examined
both the concurrent and longitudinal connections between
multiple components of the home environment and indicators
of preschool-aged children's literacy and language development.
Data were collected from 85 parents and their children at
two different times. Results of structural path models indicated
that (a) parental literacy habits were positively associated
with parental reading beliefs, (b) parental reading beliefs
were positively associated with parent-child literacy and
language activities in the home, and (c) parent-child literacy
and language activities were positively associated with
children's print knowledge and reading interest. Parental
demographic characteristics were associated with children's
expressive and receptive language skills. The results highlight
how different components of the home literacy environment
are associated with different components of preschool-aged
children's literacy and language abilities, findings that
become more important as educators and policy-makers look
for ways to enhance children's literacy and language development.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor and Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
Prereading and early reading skills of preschool
twin children in Australia, Scandinavia and the United States
were explored in a genetically sensitive design (max. N=627
preschool pairs and 422 kindergarten pairs). Analyses indicated
a strong genetic influence on preschool phonological awareness,
rapid naming and verbal memory. Print awareness, vocabulary
and grammar/morphology were subject primarily to shared
environment effects. There were significant genetic and
shared environment correlations among the preschool traits.
Kindergarten reading, phonological awareness and rapid naming
were primarily affected by genes, and spelling was equally
affected by genes and shared environment. Multivariate analyses
revealed genetic and environmental overlap and independence
among kindergarten variables. Longitudinal analyses showed
genetic continuity as well as change in phonological awareness
and rapid naming across the 2 years. Relations among the
preschool variables of print awareness, phonological awareness
and rapid naming and kindergarten reading were also explored
in longitudinal analyses. Educational implications are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
IRA
This study examined continuity in literacy
achievements from kindergarten to school, among low SES
Israeli children, controlling for family factors. Kindergartens'
early oral and code-related language skills as well as family
measures were assessed at age 51/2. In school, 21/2 years
later, their literacy achievements were evaluated. Correlations
emerged between all kindergarten literacy measures and school
literacy achievements. Oral and code-related early literacy
measures similarly predicted all school literacy achievements.
Moreover, early literacy predicted literacy achievements
at the end of second grade beyond home environmental measures.
Results highlighted the stability in children's learning
through the kindergarten-to-school transition, confirming
the importance of promoting early literacy in kindergarten,
especially among low SES children.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
This study investigated the prospective relationships
between reading performance and reading habits among Finnish
children during the first and second grades of primary school.
One hundred and ninety-five children were examined twice
during their first primary school year and once during the
spring term of Grade 2. The results showed first, that children's
reading skills predicted their reading habits: the more
competent in reading children were at the end of Grade 1,
the more likely that were to engage in out-of-school reading
one year later. Second, reading habits also predicted skills:
the amount of out-of-school reading at the end of Grade
1 contributed to the development of word recognition skills.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com
We explore factors affecting word learning:
phonological representation, vocabulary size and the frequency
with which parents name objects for their children. Infants
at 16-20 months were taught two novel words using preferential
looking; they showed reliably learning of these words and
reliably distinguished between familiar objects with phonologically
similar labels, supporting the view that phonological representation
is not necessarily 'underspecified' at this age (Gerken,
Murphy & Aslin, 1995). Infants who learnt the novel
words also distinguished the objects with similar-sounding
labels. However, vocabulary size was not related to word
learning or segmental representation capacity, suggesting
that segmental representation may help infants to learn
words, but this process is not driven by vocabulary growth
(Metsala, 1999). We also report a positive relationship
between word learning ability and the frequency of parents'
ostensive naming.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
Should parents be encouraged to teach their
hearing infants to communicate using gestural signs? Does
signing in infancy advance child behaviour and development
as claimed by many commercially available products for parents?
To answer these questions, a review was undertaken to evaluate
currently available research studies that examined the effectiveness
of prelingual signing for normally developing, hearing infants.
Databases, reference lists and the Internet were searched
for relevant documents using a pre-determined search protocol.
Seventeen reports met the review's inclusion criteria and
were retrieved and evaluated. The review failed to support
claims that signing facilitates language development, due
to insufficiencies in scientific methods and to equivocal
results.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
This research had three aims: first, to examine
the relationship between two components of emergent literacy:
contextual (environmental print, print functions, identifying
literacy activities) and non-contextual knowledge (e.g.,
letters' names, phonemic awareness, concept of print, etc.);
second, to explore the relationship between children's knowledge
of each of the two components and their socio-economic status
(SES) level in the community; and third, to study if and
how these two components predict children's word recognition
and emergent writing. The sample included 70 kindergartners
from two communities: 34 from a low SES community and 36
from a middle SES community. Results confirmed the existence
of the two proposed distinct components of emergent literacy
knowledge-the contextual and non-contextual. Compared with
their higher SES peers, low SES children had poorer contextual
and non-contextual knowledge. Finally, word recognition
and emergent writing were predicted by non-contextual components:
phonemic awareness, letters' names, and concept of print
knowledge, and not by contextual knowledge, age, or SES
group. Implications for future research and educational
practice are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of ScienceDirect:
www.sciencedirect.com
This article draws on evidence from a small-scale
study carried out in two early years classrooms. The study
investigated an approach that appeased to enable very young
children to construct and to write an argument. Multi-disciplinary
theoretical perspectives are utilized for an explanation
of the findings, with the work of Kress (1989) and Andrews
(1995, 1007) on the nature of argument itself, Donaldson
(1993) and Bereiter and Scardamalia (1993) on the value
of writing to structure and develop thinking, being the
most prominent. The case studies discussed here show that
5-7 year olds can engage with contentious, real-life issues
and if offered structured support, they are able not only
to produce written texts in the argument genre but their
thinking also develops. A collaboration between professionals
from different fields of education which aimed to support
children's learning in literacy reaffirms the impressive
competence of early years pupils.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
The quality of the home environment is widely recognized
as a strong contributor to young children's emergent literacy and social
competence and to their subsequent educational success. The present
study examined the relationships between family variables (socioeconomic
status (SES), social risk factors, and home learning variables) and
children's emergent literacy competence and children's social functioning.
The sample for this study was obtained by randomly selecting 48 classrooms
within three Head Start programs and, then, randomly selecting five
girls and five boys from each class. The final sample consisted of 325
families for which information about both child and primary caregiver
was obtained from multiple sources (teacher, outside assessor, and primary
caregiver). A mediational model was hypothesized and tested using structural
equation modeling. The findings are consistent with the hypotheses that
family social risk and home learning experiences mediate the association
between SES and Head Start children's school readiness in the areas
of emergent literacy competence and social functioning.
Abstract reproduced with permission of ScienceDirect:
www.sciencedirect.com
Drawing on theoretical perspectives related to play and
identity, play as a literacy and social text, and multimodality,
I present an analysis of a play narrative centred on the
theme of playing house. The narrative exemplifies the interconnections
between literacy and identity in the social and cultural
world of a young girl growing up in a multilingual, multi-literacy
household in an inner-city area of a western Canadian city.
The example brings to the forefront how systematic examinations
of children's play narratives have the potential to contribute
to current thought on literacy learning and self-construction
in early childhood. Understanding the imagined identities
children portray in play may be particularly revealing in
terms of understanding how they position themselves in the
world.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
The goal of this paper is to explore the design and implementation
of early years educational policy in England in the period 1997-2004.
First to be described are the innovations in policy (i.e. the promise),
followed by the 'evidence base' for new policy (i.e. the research),
the delivery of new services (i.e. the achievement), and finally the
tensions and gaps which remain (i.e. the shortfall). The paper will
focus on evidence concerning expansion of services and on the benefit
of early years education on children's development. It is argued that
early years education in England has been transformed through the following:
integration of education and care at local and national level, the introduction
of the Foundation Stage Curriculum 3-6 years and its birth-3 years supplement,
and the firm focus on families as well as children in the delivery of
services. There are, however, gaps and tensions to be resolved before
the overall vision can be achieved.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the Taylor and
Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
This paper reports on the progress made by
a small group of fourteen 11-year-old children who had been
originally identified as being precocious readers before
they started primary school at the age of five. The data
enable comparisons to be made with the performance of the
children when they were younger so that a six-year longitudinal
analysis can be made. The children who began school as precocious
readers continued to make progress in reading accuracy,
rate and comprehension, thereby maintaining their superior
performance relative to a comparison group. However, their
progress appeared to follow the same developmental trajectory
as that of the comparison group. Measures of phonological
awareness showed that there are long-term, stable individual
differences that correlated with all measures of reading.
The children who were reading precociously early showed
significantly higher levels of phonological awareness than
the comparison children. In addition, they showed the same
levels of performance on this tasks as a further group of
high achieving young adults. A positive effect of being
able to read at precociously early age was identified in
the significantly higher levels of receptive vocabulary
found amongst the children. The analyses indicated that
rises in receptive vocabulary resulted from reading performance
rather than the other way round.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com
This article explores the impact of pre-school experience
on young children's cognitive attainments at entry to primary school
and analyses data collected as part of a wider longitudinal study, the
Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) project, which followed
a large sample of young children attending 141 pre-school centres drawn
from six types of provider in five English regions. The article compares
the characteristics and attainments of the pre-school sample with those
of an additional 'home' sample (children who had not attended pre-school)
recruited at entry to reception. Multilevel analyses of relationships
between child, parent and home environment characteristics and children's
attainments in pre-reading, early number concepts and language skills
are presented. Duration of time in pre-school is found to have a significant
and positive impact on attainment over and above important influences
such as family socio-economic status, income, mother's qualification
level, ethnic and language background. The research also points to the
separate and significant influence of the home learning environment.
It is concluded that pre-school can play an important part in combating
social exclusion by offering disadvantaged children, in particular,
a better start to primary school.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the Taylor and
Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
This article is a synthesis of early literacy research
organized according to critical lessons that delineate our
shared knowledge base that we name a 'transactional perspectives
on early literacy development'. The critical lessons are
grouped into three sets to present the continuum of methodological
stances that interpretive researchers take as they design
and carry out early literacy studies. The synthesis is particularly
timely now - as children and teachers in classrooms around
the world struggle to maintain control over literacy learning
and teaching within narrow governmental agendas and mandates.
Given current governmental agendas (i.e. No Child Left Behind
in the USA, the National Literacy Strategy in the UK, among
many), it is critical to remember that we share a robust
theory, a transactional view of early literacy development
that explains how young children come to be literate members
of society.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
The purpose of this study was to examine the home environment
of immigrant Mexican kindergartens of low socio-economic status in the
USA who display high levels of emergent literacy when compared with
their peers. To examine home environments, the study focused on the
literacy beliefs and practices of four families. Findings highlight
the role of parental active support and corresponding literacy practices
at home, as promoters of positive effects of bilingualism and consequently
literacy learning. In addition, the school's use of Spanish facilitated
the dynamic of the families' belief in active support of their children's
literacy learning and subsequent literacy practices.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
This article explores some of the implications inherent
in the pedagogical strategy of encouraging students to "try"
or "have a go", particularly within the context
of early writing and spelling. Pedagogical approaches built
on the assumption that the learner will need to try in order
to learn are construed here as emanating from and contributing
to the construction of identities of 'precompetence' for
students in the first years of school. The discussion of
precompetence is contextualized within early literacy curriculum
documents and practices in Australia and further examined
through a functional linguistic analysis of two students'
talk about spelling strategies. The students' explanations
are marked by differences in the identity each learner constructs
for herself and by differences in metalinguistic knowledge,
suggesting possible links between the two. A rationale for
the prevalence of encouraging students to try to spell is
offered and supplementary approaches, based on the explicit
teaching of spelling knowledge, are recommended.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
Altogether 329 children participated in four longitudinal
studies of specific and general language performance cumulatively from
1;1 to 6;10. Data were drawn from age-appropriate maternal questionnaires,
maternal interviews, teacher reports, experimenter assessments and transcripts
of children's own spontaneous speech. Language performance at each age
and stability of individual differences across age in girls and boys
were assessed separately and together. Across age, including the important
transition from preschool to school, across multiple tests at each age
and across multiple reporters, children showed moderate to strong stability
of individual differences; girls and boys alike were stable. In the
second through fifth years, but not before or after, girls consistently
outperformed boys in multiple specific and general measures of language.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
Children's interest in shared reading (14 and 24 months)
and its relation to their later language and letter knowledge (age 3;6)
were investigated in a follow-up study. The participants were 156 children
and their mothers. Half of these children (N = 74) came from families
where one or both of the parents were diagnosed as reading disabled
(the at-risk group), the other half (N = 82) belonged to the control
group. The results revealed that children with and without familial
risk for reading difficulties did not differ from each other in the
interest they showed towards shared reading. Interestingly, only children
in the control group appeared to benefit from shared reading interactions
in their later language and letter knowledge.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
This study investigated the trajectories of preschool
and first-grade children's development of reading skills, as well as
the cognitive and social antecedents of that development. One-hundred
and ninety-six 5-to 6-year-old children were tested in October and April
of their preschool year and again in the first grade. Data included
measures of reading ability and its cognitive and social antecedents,
which were analyzed using Simplex and Piecewise Growth Curve Modeling.
The results showed that during the preschool with well-developed skills.
However, during the first grade individual differences in reading diminished.
The results suggest that systematic reading instruction in primary school
education is more beneficial for children with less developed literacy
skills, whereas children with more developed reading skills gain relatively
less from reading instruction in the first grade.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International
Reading Association.
The authors present the results of a 2-year longitudinal
study of 90 British children beginning at school entry when
they were 4 years 9 months old (range = 4 years 2 months
to 5 years 2 months). The relationships among early phonological
skills, letter knowledge, grammatical skills, and vocabulary
knowledge were investigated as predictors of word recognition
and reading comprehension. Word recognition skills were
consistently predicted by earlier measures of letter knowledge
and phoneme sensitivity (but not by vocabulary knowledge,
rhyme skills or grammatical skills). In contrast, reading
comprehension was predicted by prior word recognition skills,
vocabulary skills and grammatical skills. The results are
related to current theories about the role of phonological,
grammatical and vocabulary skills in the development of
early reading skills.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the American Psychological
Association.
In Experiment 1, it was found that 5-year-old new school
entrants taught by a synthetic phonics method had better reading, spelling
and phonemic awareness than two groups taught analytic phonics. The
synthetic phonics children were the only ones that could read by analogy,
and they also showed better reading of irregular words and nonwords.
For one analytic phonics group the programme was supplemented by phonological
awareness training; this led to gains in phonemic awareness but not
reading or spelling compared with the other analytic phonics group.
The synthetic phonics programme was taught to the analytic phonics groups
after their initial programmes had been completed and post-tested. The
group that had had phonological awareness training did not perform better
than the other two groups when tested 15 months later; this was also
the case when the same comparison was made for the the subset of children
that had started school with weak phonological awareness skill. Speed
of letter learning was controlled for in Experiment 2; it was found
that the synthetic phonics group still read and spelt better than the
analytic phonics group. It was concluded that synthetic phonics was
more effective than analytic phonics, and that with the former approach
it was not necessary to carry out supplementary training in phonological
awareness.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Kluwer Academic
Publishing: www.kluweronline.com
As educators, we need to change the way we think about
cognition and emotion, especially for children who struggle to read.
Emotion and cognition work in parallel in subtle and powerful ways.
In this article, we explore the relationship between emotion and cognition
in a group of children with reading disabilities in grades five through
nine. We investigate their emotional reactions to reading and the influence
of emotions on their cognition, mood, and self-schemas. We present our
results in themes that arose from our conversations with the students
and their teachers. From our themes, we designed a Checklist of Emotional
Distress Related to Reading that teachers and parents can use to determine
the impact of emotions on the children in their lives. We present suggestions
at the end that teachers and others can use to better understand and
assist children identified by the checklist.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the Taylor and
Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
Background: Phonological awareness tests are known to
be amongst the best predictors of literacy; however their predictive
validity alongside current school screening practice (baseline assessment,
pupil background data) and to National Curricular outcome measures is
unknown.
Aim: We explored the validity of phonological awareness and orthographic
measures, the Infant Index baseline assessment (Desforges & Lindsay,
1995), gender, free school dinners, and SEN status taken at age 5 in
the prediction of English, Maths, and Science performance in Key Stage
1 of the National Curriculum in England.
Sample: 453 children from nine schools in one Local Educational Authority
(LEA) were screened at entry aged 4 or 5, and at 5:8 and age 7.
Method: We trained schools Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) to administer
orthographic and phonological awareness measures. Teachers collected
data on all baseline and Key Stage 1 performance measures.
Results: A series of 13 logistic regression analyses revealed that phonological
awareness and orthographic knowledge best predicted 12 of 13 measures
of performance at Key Stage 1. Additional variance was nearly always
explained by SEN status. In analyses the Infant Index baseline score
predicted performance at age 7 and was the best predictor of maths test
performance. Gender was an occasional additional predictor.
Conclusion: School LEAs can be readily trained to administer phonological
awareness measures to cohorts of 5-year-old children. Such measures
used in conjunction with baseline measures significantly enhance prediction
of Key Stage 1 performance. Deploying LSAs in this fashion significantly
enhances a school's capacity to identify young children for whom additional
support may be necessary.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
British Psychological Society: www.bps.org.uk
Parental discipline practices, parent-child shared book
reading and children's emergent literacy skills were assessed among
76 parents and their children in the summer before the children started
Kindergarten. Parents provided narrative responses to open-ended questions
about how they would handle common discipline challenges with children
and rated their likelihood of using physical punishment. Parents also
reported the number of books they read with their children each week
and completed a checklist assessing their familiarity with the titles
and authors of children's books. Children's emergent literacy skills
were assessed with individually administered tests. Analyses of covariance
indicated that shared book reading was reliably associated with children's
language comprehension skills only among parents whose responses to
discipline scenarios included relatively high levels of nondirective
reasoning. Parents who expressed a willingness to consider physical
punishment had children with lower language comprehension skills regardless
of the quantity of shared book reading. These effects were reliable
after taking into account the effects of parental education and children's
nonverbal reasoning skills.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Elsevier: www.elsevier.com
A principle aim of the National Curriculum in England
was to ensure equality of opportunity for all children, regardless of
race or social class. This aim was strengthened through the introduction
of the National Literacy Strategy 10 years later which set out to standardize
not just the literacy curriculum itself but also the materials and methods
used to teach it. But are children living in very different economic
circumstances really given equal access to literacy during their first
year of school? This article first uses insights from the work of Bourdieu
on the economic, social and cultural capital or resources possessed
by families and Bernstein on different curricula and pedagogic discourse
to explain why some children are likely to have more success than others
in making sense of classroom learning. It then goes on to argue that
neither theory can fully account for children's progress and shows how
one teacher creates a particular culture with her class that defies
existing paradigms of social class, capital and early school success.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
In this review, we re-assess the evidence that phonological
awareness represents a skill specific to spoken language that precedes
and directly influences the process of reading acquisition. Longitudinal
and experimental training studies are examined in detail, as these are
considered most appropriate for exploring a causal hypothesis of this
nature. A particular focus of our analysis is the degree to which studies
to date have controlled for existing literacy skills in their participants
and the influence that these skills might have on performance on phonological
awareness task. We conclude that no study has provided unequivocal evidence
that there is a causal link from competence in phonological awareness
to success in reading and spelling acquisition. However, we believe
that such a study is possible and outline some ideas for its design
and implementation.
Abstract reproduced with permission Elsevier: www.elsevier.com
It has been suggested that children need exposure to alphabetic
tuition before they can develop phonological awareness, especially phonemic
awareness. This paper re-examines an existing data set to see whether
two groups of pre-school, pre-literate children who differ in their
knowledge of letter names (used here as a measure of alphabetic tuition)
will also differ in their levels of phonological awareness. Their later
performance on measures of school age reading and spelling attainment
is also compared. The results show that the two groups of children did
not differ significantly in either their phonological awareness or their
literacy attainment.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the Taylor and
Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
This study analyses how pre-school children who differ
in terms of maternal education respond to and interpret the images and
written text in the same two picture books, one informational (The
sleepy book [Zolotow and Bobri, 1960]) and one narrative (The
baby who wouldn't go to bed [Cooper, 1996]). Twelve children were
recorded in their homes interacting with their mothers, and 12 children
were recorded in their pre-schools interacting with a teacher. There
were systematic differences in the manner in which the children who
were interacting with their pre-school teachers responded to the texts
compared with the children who were interacting with their mothers.
The pre-school teachers provided the children of early school leaving
mothers with opportunities to interact with text, which differed from
those provided by their mothers. Such differences were not apparent
to the same extent for the children of tertiary-educated mothers.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
Background: When constructing stimuli for experimental
investigations of cognitive processes in early reading development,
researchers have to rely on adult or American children's word frequency
counts, as no such counts exist for English children.
Aim: The present paper introduces a database of children's
early reading vocabulary, for use by researchers and teachers.
Sample: Texts from 685 books from reading schemes and
story books read by 5-7 year-old children were used in the construction
of the database.
Method: All words from the 685 books were typed or scanned
into an Oracle database.
Results: The resulting up-to-date word frequency list
of early print exposure in the UK is available in two forms from a website
address given in this paper (www.ioe.ac.uk/phd/llrc). This allows access
to one list of the words ordered alphabetically and one list of the
words ordered by frequency. We also briefly address some fundamental
issues underlying early reading vocabulary (e.g. that it is heavily
skewed toward low frequencies). Other characteristics of the vocabulary
are then discussed.
Conclusion: We hope the word frequency lists will be of
use to researchers seeking to control word frequency, and to teachers
interested in the vocabulary to which young children are exposed in
their reading material.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the British Psychological
Society: www.bps.org.uk
In this article, we argue against deficit models of early
literacy common in the field of speech pathology, proposing instead
a competence-based view of early literacy as the concurrent development
of language practices develop through social interaction. We look specifically
at shared book reading, developing a discourse analysis of case study
data that show how parents do considerable interactional work to position
their children with language delays as competent and active co-constructors
of meaning in this important early literacy activity.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications:
www.sagepub.co.uk
This study explored the extent to which preschool children's
name writing representations reflected their more general emergent literacy
knowledge in print and phonological awareness. As part of a preschool
literacy screening program, 3,546 4-year-old children were administered
a name writing task and additional indices of emergent literacy. Children
were placed into four groups based on the level of their name-writing
representations. The four groups were compared for performance on alphabet
knowledge, concept of word, print knowledge, rhyme awareness, and beginning
sound awareness tasks. The four name-writing groups significantly differed
from one another on each of these dependent measures. Additionally,
a regression analysis showed the linear combination of the five emergent
literacy indices to significantly predict level of name writing representation,
accounting for 36% of the variance outcome. Print-related skills (alphabet
knowledge, print concepts), in addition to age, accounted for 34% of
this variance. While findings suggest that name writing representations
can differentiate children in both phonological and print awareness,
name writing representations appear to predominantly reflect print-related
knowledge.
Although not legally mandatory, England's National Literacy
Strategy (NLS) has been introduced into almost every primary school
in England. Interactive pedagogy and a broad conception of the reading
process are claimed to permeate the various parts of the Strategy. This
article examines the interactions between teachers, children and text
during a Literacy Hour shared book session in three different Year 1
classrooms with five- and six-year-old children. The first transcript
is taken from early demonstration video material produced by the NLS;
the other two are of teachers implementing the strategy. A close examination
of these transcripts extracts shows very different patterns of interaction
and implicit conceptions of the reading process. Paradoxically, the
teacher chosen to demonstrate the Literacy Hour in action presents the
most limited kind of interaction and the narrowest view of the process
of reading. It is the teachers taking a more independent line who establish
and support the interactive style and focus on meaning claimed by the
NLS. These teachers encourage their children to develop relationships
of both engagement and detachment with the texts that are the focus
of attention, and thus, it is suggested, lay an important foundation
for the development of complex acts of comprehension.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications:
www.sagepub.co.uk
The literature to date suggests that the best predictor
of early reading ability, phonological awareness, appears to be associated
with the acquisition of letter-sound and vocabulary knowledge and with
the development of well-defined phonological representations. It further
suggests that at least some aspects of phonological awareness critically
depend upon literacy exposure. In this study of 4- to 6-year-olds, we
examine whether aspects of the home literacy environment are differentially
associated with phonological awareness. Parental responses to a questionnaire
about the home literacy environment are compared to children's awareness
of rhyme and phonemes, as well as to their vocabulary, letter knowledge,
and performance on measures of phonological strength (nonword repetition,
rapid naming skill, phonological distinctness, and auditory discrimination).
The results showed that a teaching focus in the home literacy environment
and exposure to reading-related media are directly associated with phoneme
awareness and indirectly associated via letter knowledge and vocabulary.
Exposure to reading-related media and parents' active involvement in
children's literature were also directly and indirectly linked with
rhyme awareness skills via their association with letter and vocabulary
knowledge.
The article challenges the narrow versions of literacy
in current versions of early childhood education in the UK. The theoretical
underpinning for the paper is drawn from sociocultural perspectives
and what Kress (1997) defines as the 'broad and messy area ... of communication
and representation'. It is argued that we need to broaden our understanding
of literacy to include young children's representations in graphic and
narrative versions, influenced by the media and 'everyday' exchanges
with siblings and significant adults, that characterize their journeys
towards literacy in home settings. When they enter pre-school and start
school the versions of representations they are encouraged to do are
driven by a narrow emphasis on school versions of literacy and numeracy.
The kind of personal and social drawings done at home are discarded.
The argument is illustrated by examples of young children drawing in
home and school settings taken from a three-year longitudinal study
of seven young children's meaning making as they moved from home to
pre-school and the beginning of schooling.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications:
www.sagepub.co.uk
Previous research has suggested that children
making transitions from one setting into another have to
adjust to new sets of expectations and different cultural
contexts for teaching and learning. In particular, they
have to redefine for themselves 'what counts as literacy'.
In this article, Sue Pearson, a past President of NASEN,
an experienced teacher and currently a lecturer at Leeds
University, reports on her investigations into whether similar
adjustments may be required of some pupils as they start
secondary school.
The recommendations at the end of this article
are based on interviews with 24 11 to 12 year-olds and are
of direct relevance to practitioners in primary and secondary
schools and to parents and family members. Sue Pearson uses
pupils' perceptions to raise important issues about the
nature of the support that pupils experiencing difficulties
in literacy require as they make the transfer from Year
6 to Year 7.
The concept of the 'new communication landscape' (Kress,
1998) is propelling a re-examination of what is meant by literacy, and
the ways in which we seek to identify and promote literacy practices
in young children. This article reviews theoretical moves to destabilize
the dichotomy between oracy and literacy. Challenges posed by an examination
of new technologies are set against those that draw on evidence from
diverse cultural and historical contexts. The telephone presents a contemporary
context that has been largely overlooked in child language research
- yet this medium possesses its own specific constraints and opportunities
for discourse, necessitating a shift away form the 'here-and now' characteristics
of very young children's talk, to a consideration of the interlocutor's
distance characteristics of literacy. An analysis of the practices of
three-and four-year old children's spontaneous telephone play demonstrates
many ways in which their oral practices in this communication channel
may be conceptualized within an understanding of their symbolic meaning-making
practices that is related to literacy, rather than a separate domain
of activity. Finally, it is proposed that Bakhtin's notion of 'speech
genre' provides a particularly useful characterization of this important
aspect of language development in the context of communication technology.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications:
www.sagepub.co.uk
The aim of this small-scale research project
was to examine the literacy events children choose to engage
in outside school. Two groups of Primary School children
were involved in investigating the use of literacy in their
lives, using disposable cameras to record literacy events
and texts. The photographs and the discussion stimulated
by them provided evidence that these children used literacy
in richly diverse ways for purposes which they saw as meaningful.
Although limited in size and scope, the study showed that
uses of literacy presented by these children reflected community
literacy practices (as identified by Barton & Hamilton,
1998). However, it was also clear that the children acted
with considerable autonomy, motivation and creativity in
making their use of literacy meaningful to them. This paper
provides a report on the project and discussed the implications
of these findings for the teaching of literacy in schools.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk
This case study of the process of sharing picture books
with a child in the first three years of his life at home with parents
and visiting grandparents attempts to capture something of the rich
detail of the experience. The setting for the study is an English/American
household in England and Dylan is the first-born child of professional
parents. After locating the study in the context of some of the existing
research literature about sharing books with babies, the article focuses
on Dylan's unique responses to picture books and has a developmental
emphasis, reflected in the month-by-month observations. The possible
significance of particular books for this child and the role of other
print materials are discussed. Certain themes that recur in Dylan's
personal routes to literacy are analysed and the article concludes with
some indicators of the wider implications of the study for the learning
and teaching of literacy in the early years.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
This article considers the importance of in-depth case
studies in research into young children's language and literacy learning,
and asks how the findings of such research can be utilized. Two case
studies from a larger ethnography of home and school learning are offered
as exemplars: one child is from an English, and the other from a Bangladeshi,
background, but the two were born on the same day, and start school
in the same classroom. Their home experiences of literacy and other
forms of learning are compared: though neither child's early literacy
experiences is ideally matched to the classroom they enter, the English
child is enabled to 'make up' home disadvantages in ways which are not
available to the Bangladeshi child. When differences in their experiences
and outcomes are theorized, it is suggested that communication between
home and school is the key to successful adaptation to school literacy
learning.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications
Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
Children's emergent literacy has received
considerable attention in the last decade. The modal view
of emergent literacy is that it encompasses all aspects
of children's oral and written language skills. The present
article proposes an alternative view whereby emergent literacy
is a separate construct from oral language and metalinguistic
skills. It is also proposed that emergent literacy is composed
of two distinct components: children's conceptual knowledge
(e.g. knowledge of the functions of print) and children's
early procedural knowledge of writing and reading (e.g.
invented spelling). Evidence is presented that support this
differentiated view of language and emergent literacy by
showing that distinct patterns of relations exist among
emergent literacy, oral language, and metalinguistic skills.
It is concluded that separating the constructs of language
and emergent literacy is an interesting alternative to current
conceptions of emergent literacy. In time, such theoretical
fine tuning will serve as better guides for policy and practice.
Abstract reproduced with permission Elsevier: www.elsevier.com
A study was performed to explore the role of temperament
as a predictor of early literacy and numeracy skills in
preschoolers. The participants in this study were 94 children
(46 males, 48 females) enrolled in half-day junior kindergarten
(M age = 51.52, SD = 3.25 mos.). Parents completed the Colorado
Child Temperament Inventory (CCTI, Buss & Plomin, 1984,
Rowe & Plomin, 1977). Child interviews were conducted,
and vocabulary, concepts about print, counting, and numeracy
skills were assessed. Results from hierarchical regression
analyses revealed that temperament contributed uniquely
to the explanation of literacy and numeracy skills over
and above well-established indicators of a child's academic
achievement (i.e. parental education, gender, vocabulary).
Results are discussed in terms of educational and developmental
implications.
Abstract reproduced with permission Elsevier: www.elsevier.com
Literacy development among a group of preschool
and kindergarten children was examined through changes in
the form, function, and perception of their written names.
Sixty-seven 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, their teachers, instructional
aides, and six case-study parents participated in a yearlong
qualitative and quantitative study. Literacy skills were
assessed in the fall and spring; instructional methods,
classroom interactions, and student writing efforts were
observed. Preschool and kindergarten teachers and instructional
aides as well as the parents of six case-study children
responded to interviews and participated in informal discussions
of children's early literacy growth. Analysis of assessments
and writing samples indicates a substantial role for name
in early literacy. Name recognition correlates with age
(.86) for 3-year-olds, while name production correlates
with alphabet knowledge (.55 to .77), word recognition (.49
to .62) and concept of word (.39 to .66) for 4-and 5-year-olds.
Name letters represent approximately 40 percent of children's
random letter written characters. Reciprocal relationships
among the children's literacy skills were evident. Automaticity
in name writing paralleled control of the alphabet, recognition
of several sight words, and emerging tracking ability. Name
has the instructional potential to help children connect
literacy strands in a meaningful way.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association
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