The role of literacy in early childhood education

The role of literacy in the early childhood education

    In A ECE class that I took in undergrad, I learned that Every time you read a book, write a note, make a grocery list or scroll through the tv guide are ways that you are helping your child display skills that children need, so they will be ready to learn, read, and write by the time they start school. Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman, and Hemphill (1991) and others have shown that "children from homes where parents model the use of literacy and engage children in activities that promote basic understandings about literacy and its uses are better prepared for school." The article also talk about how it's not only important to read to children but it is also important to introduce them to the text that you are reading to them. 

    My article was The role of literacy in early childhood education. This article discussed the importance of early literacy in children's education. Early literacy is crucial to the development of children because language and literacy begins at birth and is a lifelong process. One of the topics was Literacy learning starts early. in here it states that "Those who care for and educate young children should know that oral language and literacy develop together. What children learn from listening and talking contributes to their ability to read and write, and vice versa" (Juel, 1988). The article also states that "children need regular and active interactions with print at a very early age" ( Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). 

    Another important topic it talked about was the effect of print - rich classroom environments on early literacy growth. In this section we learn that the process of learning to read and write takes place soon as the children are introduced to text. Therefore, as parents we must label things around the house so the children can be introduced to a print-rich environment. This is also why it is important to make sure the children can see the text as you read to them. This will help children become well prepared for pre-k.  As a literacy educator, we need to establish a climate that support to become literacy learners. We need to have areas for children to read books on their own and a center for them to freely write. We also need to model reading in the classroom on a daily basis. "We now recognize that literacy development in it's emergent forms begins even earlier than prekindergarten" (McLane & McNamee, 1990). SO I encourage parents and teachers of today to make a print-rich environment for your children studies have shown the long term success of early readers.