“Children are born with wings. Teachers help them to fly.” -Shelby Stollery
Opening Vignette: Climbing Together
Marvin and Maria, both three-years-old, played with four-year-old John in the backyard outdoor area in a multi-age family home child care. There were five tree stumps of varying heights and a very large piece of a tree trunk lying sideways on the ground. The children scrambled on top of the stumps and the trunk, laughing and occasionally saying, “Watch me!” Maria and Marvin both made several attempts to climb on the large sideways log by bringing up a knee, but John was able to climb atop it more easily. Marvin frustratedly exclaimed, “I can’t do it!” Maria pointed to John, replying, “He is big!” And John said, “Get your leg up,” while demonstrating a maneuver holding the top of the trunk while extending a straight leg. When Marvin made his next attempt, he bent his knee as he had done before. John coached, “No. Like this!” and demonstrated. After trying once or twice, Marvin was able to climb atop the trunk. Maria then made several attempts. Though she used the straightened leg approach that had worked for John and Marvin, she could not climb onto it alone. Marvin walked over as she struggled and nudged her further forward, and she was finally able to sit on top of the trunk.
Introduction
Young children such as Marvin, Maria, and John have diverse abilities and experiences with language. They are each at different places in terms of their physical stage of development, previous experiences, and expectations of what they think they can do. They use language in different ways. At times, they speak, beckon, or make other gestures. They laugh and smile to signal pleasure and cry out in pain, anger or frustration. They use language for enjoyment and for resolution of problems. They are listening and speaking, communicating non-verbally, and developing concepts that support their comprehension and vocabulary. They can share meaning by expressing themselves and understanding language. Young children are beginning to demonstrate that they can communicate a message through writing.
This textbook outlines the connection between different areas of language and literacy and describes strategies for supporting development and promoting instruction. Early literacy includes reading, writing, and language development. Writing includes any early writing attempts and pre-writing behaviors just as reading includes any early reading attempts and recognition of symbols and sounds. Language also includes listening and speaking (oral language) and the use of gestures and signs to communicate. The term oral language is commonly used to describe early language development separately from reading and writing. This text assumes oral language is a component of language and embraces the broader term to underscore the communication practices outside of listening and speaking. For example, some children use sign language or a picture board. For these reasons, the textbook will focus on language development in its totality, including oral language. This textbook is focused on birth to age 5 because early literacy development is crucial for future learning and development. This introductory chapter will explore the following questions:
Why do we use a strengths-based approach when we consider what literacy development is?
What is emergent literacy?
What is the nested model of literacy?
What definitions and terms of common literacy are important to know?
Empowering Approaches to Literacy Development
Each child has unique strengths and uses strategies they learn are successful to foster literacy development. It is crucial to start with an approach that emphasizes what children can do instead of what they cannot yet achieve. An approach that begins with examining deficits often over-emphasizes what children lack instead of their capacities. Children’s literacy experiences are housed within relationships and opportunities. An integrated approach acknowledges that reading, writing, and language development are connected and contextualized by children’s experiences. Language development, and later reading and writing, are vehicles for comprehension, even as our increasing comprehension helps us to form each of these three areas. The components of literacy develop incrementally and they all foster the development of the other components. Literacy development requires a holistic approach, focusing on understanding the whole child across contexts and time with a strengths-based focus.
This textbook acknowledges the importance of collaboration in a strengths-based focus as it fosters cultural responsiveness and an integrated approach to learning. By starting with the expectation that there are multiple perspectives to be heard and valued, educators are better equipped to embrace and respond to the needs of children and families. Strong communication among all of the adults that make up the context of the child’s life promotes the opportunities for children and families to have input and influence in the environment. This, in turn, fosters positive outcomes for children’s literacy development.
Figure 2.3.1 Children work with stencils and sticks to explore letter formation.
Emergent Literacy?
Emergent literacy is based on the notion that children acquire knowledge about reading, writing, and language before they have begun any formal education (Clay, 1966, 2001; Sulzby & Teale, 1982; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998, 2001). This conceptualization of literacy as a developmental process that begins at birth counters previous early literacy theories that believed readiness for learning to read began with formal schooling (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Many researchers have contributed to our understanding of literacy development in the earliest years. According to Marie Clay (1966), literacy development begins early in life and is ongoing. Teale (1987) explained that children not only have particular experiences before they start school, but they also have developed interests. Emergent literacy is the result of children’s involvement in reading activities facilitated by literate adults (Teale, 1982). Sulzby and Teale (1991) define emergent literacy as the reading and writing behaviors that precede and develop into conventional literacy. These early literacy behaviors indicate a child’s stage of reading and are particularly revealing in determining the approaches a child will use as they engage in the task of reading. Similarly, Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998) define emergent literacy as a “developmental continuum between prereading and reading involving skills, knowledge and attitudes that are the developmental precursors to reading and writing” (1998, p. 484). This underscores that we expect children to acquire skills over time. Additionally, Whitehurst and Lonigan (2001) have clarified that emergent reading develops in an interactive process of skills and context, rather than individual components developing in a linear fashion.
All of these definitions of emergent reading help us understand that long before children are reading books word for word, they are acquiring important literacy knowledge and skills. For example, many young children can point out commonly visited store logos with no prompting. Any adult who has ever heard a toddler in the backseat point to the fast food restaurant and scream, “fry-fries!” has witnessed emergent reading. It is not simply about the quantity of skills a child develops before appearing to be a fluent reader. Rather a child’s literacy develops over a long period of time, with early skills supporting the growth or emergence of new skills.
Emergent literacy and early literacy are often used interchangeably, but this textbook will use the term emergent literacy, encompassing everything a child knows about reading and writing before they become proficient. Emergent literacy can be thought of as the totality of the language capacities, knowledge, and skills a child possesses even before developing the ability to turn that knowledge into reading in ways that are measured as conventional skills. Children are developing reading, writing, and language concurrently during their earliest years. All of the key concepts in emergent literacy occur on a developmental continuum and involve stages of learning.
References
Clay, M. M. (2001). Change over time in children’s literacy development. Heinemann.
Clay, M. M. (1966). Emergent reading behaviour. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Sulzby, E., & Teale, W. (1985). Writing development in early childhood. Education Horizons, 64, 8–12.
Sulzby, E., & Teale, W. H. (1991). Emergent literacy. In R. Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2, pp. 727–757). Longman.
Teale, W. H. (1982). Toward a theory of how children learn to read and write naturally. Language Arts, 59, 555–570.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69, 848–872.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (2001). Emergent literacy: Development of prereaders to readers. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (Vol.1, pp.11–29). Guilford.
Image Credits
Image, Section 2.3.1: Longwood University. [Children Working] CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
