Early Literacy

Early literacy describes the gradual, ongoing process of learning to understand and use language that begins at birth and continues through the early childhood years. During this period children first learn to use oral forms of language--listening and speaking--and then begin to explore and make sense of written forms-reading and writing. What we know from research about brain development, the importance of early relationships, healthy social-emotional development and language development will inform teachers’ and programs’ early literacy planning and instruction. Providing children with many opportunities to listen and speak builds one of the important foundations for reading and writing.

Children who are read to often experience the joy of reading. Even though most children come into the world ready to learn spoken language and, through exposure to books and listening to stories, become increasingly interested in literacy, they will need carefully planned instruction to learn to read or make sense of written language. Thus, children and their families should be seen as contributors to their literacy development and practices just as they should be seen for their oral communication practices. The benefits of creating positive and meaningful language and literacy experiences for young bilingual children are far reaching. Being biliterate, or having the ability to read and write in two languages offers numerous intellectual, cultural, economic, and social benefits.

Recently, an increasing number of scientifically validated studies conducted primarily with monolingual, English-speaking school-age children have demonstrated the importance of preschool children being introduced to skills that are essential for learning to read in early elementary school. Learning activities that expose all preschool children to vocabulary development, letter knowledge, concepts of print, and basic phonological awareness work well when they are relatively brief, playful, engaging, multisensory, and purposeful. For preschool-age English Learners, opportunities to begin learning these skills give them the foundation they need to learn to read and support their developing mastery of English.