Supporting Early Literacy & Language Development
Language development and literacy is no doubt a critical part of any child's overall development. It supports the ability of your child to communicate, and express and understand feelings. It also supports your child's thinking ability and helps them develop and maintain relationships.
Our current understanding of early language and literacy development has provided new ways of helping children learn to talk, read, and write. But it does not advocate "the teaching of reading" to younger and younger children. Formal instruction which pushes infants and toddlers to achieve the actual reading and writing of words is not developmentally appropriate. Early literacy theory emphasizes the more natural unfolding of skills through the enjoyment of books, and the importance of positive interactions between young children and adults, and the critical role of literacy-rich experiences. Formal instruction to require young children who are not developmentally ready to read is counter productive and potentially damaging to children, who may begin to associate reading and books with failure.
“Literacy is one of the greatest gifts a person could give” ~ Jen Selinsky
What We Know About Early Language and Literacy Development
Early language and literacy development begins in the first three years of life and is closely linked to a child's earliest experiences with books and stories. The interactions that young children have with such literacy materials as books, paper, and crayons, and with the adults in their lives are the building blocks for language, reading and writing development. This relatively new understanding of early literacy development complements the current research supporting the critical role of early experiences in shaping brain development.
Recent research supports an interactive and experiential process of learning spoken and written language skills that begins in early infancy. We now know that children gain significant knowledge of language, reading, and writing long before they enter school. Children learn to talk, read, and write through such social literacy experiences as adults or older children interacting with them using books and other literacy materials, including magazines, markers, and paper. Simply put, early literacy research states that:
• Language, reading, and writing skills develop at the same time and are intimately linked.
• Early literacy development is a continuous developmental process that begins in the first years of life.
• Early literacy skills develop in real life settings through positive interactions with literacy materials and other people.
Early Literacy Behaviors
Book Handling Behaviors : Behaviors related to a child's physical manipulation or handling of books, such as page turning and chewing.
Looking and Recognizing : Behaviors related to how children pay attention to and interact with pictures in books, such as gazing at pictures or laughing at a favorite picture. Behaviors that show recognition of and a beginning understanding of pictures in books, such as pointing to pictures of familiar objects.
Picture and Story Comprehension : Behaviors that show a child's understanding of pictures and events in a book, such as imitating an action seen in a picture or talking about the events in a story.
Story-Reading Behaviors : Behaviors that include children's verbal interactions with books and their increasing understanding of print in books, such as babbling in imitation of reading or running fingers along printed words.
Thank You, Zero to Three, for providing inspiration for this blog post.
For more information on Early Learning and Development check out Zero to Three’s website!