Emergent Literacy

2. WHAT IS IT?

3. To describe how young
children interact with
books and when reading or
writing, even though they
could not read or write in
the conventional sense
DEFINITION OF
EMERGENT LITERACY

4.  Literacy is a wonderful
process where children
are on the verge of
acquiring reading and
writing knowledge

5. HOW EARLY SHOULD A
CHILD START READING
& WRITING?

6. Emergent Literacy
 Emergent literacy is the developmental
process that begins at birth whereby children
acquire the foundation for reading and writing.
 “The term ‘emergent literacy’ is used to
denote the idea that the acquisition of literacy
is best conceptualized as a developmental
continuum, with its origins early in the life of a
child, rather than as an all-or-none
phenomenon that begins when children start
school” (p. 848).
Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998

7. LITERACY starts at birth (0-
4/5 years).
It is nurtured and not
nature.
Literacy skills build and
grow a little at a time.

8. LITERACY skills build on each other,
but they are not necessarily
sequential.
Every skill is integrated at the same
time.

9. - It requires the involvement of an adult
to stimulate a child’s interest, scaffold
experiences and responds to a child’s
earnest attempts to learn a skill.

11. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO START EARLY?
“ Children who get off to a good start in early
reading rarely fall behind (Reutzel and
Cooter, 2008 p.80)
On the other hand, children who start out with a
shakier foundation get further behind.

12. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO START EARLY?
“Emergent literacy forms a foundation upon
which children will gage their future reading”
(Schirmer, 1998).
In other words, if emerging literacy was fun, exciting
and explosive for a child, that child will probably
continue to feel that way about reading throughout
life.

13. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO START EARLY?
“Many pediatricians believe that a child who
has never held a book or listened to a story is
not a fully healthy child” (Klass, 1998).

14. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO START EARLY?
“As parents talk, sing and read to children,
the children’s brain cells are developed.
Existing links among brain cells are
strengthened and new cells and links are
formed” (Shore, 1997).

15. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO START EARLY?
Number of words heard by Age 3
 Low Income……..10 million
 Middle income…. 20 million
 High income ……30 million
Hart & Risley, 1995

16. 1) Cognitive and/or language impairments
(Scarborough, 1998).
2)Lack of access to early literacy activities,
3)Poor quality or limited participation in early
literacy activities,
4)Lower social economic status (Hart, 1995).
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors for
Emergent Literacy Issues

17. Emphasis :
1) Preparation for kindergarten.
2) Preventing academic & reading difficulty – ultimate
academic failure.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO START EARLY?

18. “The rich get richer, and the poor
get poorer”

19. SOME INDICATORS OF EMERGENT
LITERACY DEVELOPMENT
• Pretend writing
• Pretend reading from favourite books
• Listening to stories
• Producing fictional narratives
• Detecting rhymes
• Identifying major elements of a book
• Acting out stories
• Pointing out familiar words in the environment
• Producing nursery rhymes

20. BASIC COMPONENTS OF
EMERGENT LITERACY
 RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE
EXPRESSIVE
LANGUAGE/NARRATIVE SKILLS
VOCABULARY
PRINT AWARENESS
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
LETTER KNOWLEDGE
PRINT MOTIVATION

21. BASIC COMPONENTS
1)RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE
- understanding the language
2) EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE/NARRATIVE
SKILLS
- How they express themselves through
language
3) VOCABULARY
- Knowing the name of things

22. BASIC COMPONENTS
4) PRINT AWARENESS
- Noticing print, knowing how to handle a book,
and knowing how to follow words on a page
5) PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
- being able to hear and play with the smaller
sounds in words.

23. BASIC COMPONENTS
6) LETTER KNOWLEDGE
- Understanding letters are different from each
other, knowing their names and sounds, and
recognizing letters everywhere.
7) PRINT MOTIVATION
- Being interested in and enjoying books.

24. 1) EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE
- DESCRIBING SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED

25. 2) VOCABULARY
S
O
R
T
I
N
G
COLOURS
SHOE TYPE
TYPE OF FASTENERS

26. 3) PRINT AWARENESS
- WORD HOUSES ( word cards + pictures)
LIVING
THINGS
NON- LIVING
THINGS
mat hatrat bat tap cat

27. 4) PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
- RHYMING GAME
CAT LOG DOG

28. 5) LETTER KNOWLEDGE
- REARRANGING WORD CARDS IN
ALPHABETICAL ORDER

29. 6) PRINT MOTIVATION
 Read often and make it enjoyable
 Read when you and the child are in a good
mood, so the experience is a positive one.
 Change your voice when you read aloud.
 Keep books accessible to children
 Stop reading when a child becomes tired
or loses interest

30. CONCEPTS ABOUT PRINT
 Child can:
Point to front and back of book
Demonstrate awareness that print contains a
message
Indicate where to start reading on a page
Indicate the directions to read words
Indicate that at the end of a line you sweep left
to the next lower line
Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts
of first and last

31. CONCEPTS OF PRINT
 Child can:
Indicate that you stop at a period
Indicate that you pause at a comma
Count words in a line
Point to one letter
Point to an uppercase letter
Point to the top and the bottom of a page
Point to the top and the bottom of a picture

32. SKILLS

33. LITERACY IS NOT A SET OF
AN ISOLATED SKILLS, BUT
RATHER A SET OF
PROCESSES THAT
CHILDREN SEE AS A MEANS
TO ACHIEVE GOALS

34. - LITERACY includes four basic areas:
•Language
•Listening
•Writing
•Reading
- All skills are learned or gained at the
same time.

35. READING
1) READ
2) TELL – AUTHOR, TITLE, FAMOUS BEGINNING AND
ENDING SENTENCES IN STORIES
e.g. Once upon a time
e.g. they lived happily ever after
TELL – Beginning, middle and end

36. Reading to Students
• One of the best ways to develop students’
emergent literacy is to read interesting books to
them.
• It helps…
– Develop children’s vocabulary.
– Develop their experiential background.
– Make them aware of the language of books.
– Introduce them to concepts of print and how books are
read.
– Provide them with an enjoyment of reading.

37. LISTENING
1)Help children listen for the beginning
sound of a word.
2)Look at how a word is broken into
syllables.
3)Explain how different words rhyme
with each other.

38. WRITING
Teach the children about different
styles of writing – depending on
the purpose.
* poem
* signs

39. Effective Writing Activities
• Write letters to each other
• Create invitations for events
• Write stories about what is happening in their
lives
• Write stories about special events
• Make connections to books they are reading
• Encourage children to make lists

40. IMPORTANT ELEMENTS IN EMERGENT
LITERACY:
a) Responsive adults
b) Active play
c) Quality, responsive, developmentally
appropriate materials
d) Real experiences
e) Teaching in context
f) Talking about reading, writing, listening
and language

41. A) RESPONSIVE ADULTS
- A critical skill that all adults must develop.
- Adults who just use language to direct,
instruct, control and punish will not help
children develop complex language skills.
- Parents are the first critical adult in child’s
reading process.
- In other words, literacy development at home
is very important.

42. - All new skills and concepts must be used again and
again by a child until they become fully integrated in
his or her mind and behaviour.
- E.g. learn how to drive
- Play allows children to internalize new ideas and skills,
integrate them with other knowledge and begin to use
them in their daily lives.
- Play also provides an essential environment for literacy
learning.
- To learn new literacy skills, children must be risk-
takers.

43. - ONE OF THE WAYS TO TRIGGER HIS OR
HER INTEREST IN LITERACY IS THROUGH
HIGH QUALITY TOYS AND MATERIALS.
- THEY HELP CHILDREN TO BE ACTIVELY
INVOLVED.
- E.G. PLAYING LEGO
- E.G. PAINTING
C) QUALITY, RESPONSIVE, DEVELOPMENTALLY
APPROPRIATE MATERIALS

44. D) REAL EXPERIENCES
 Begin with what children know
 What we know about how children learn
 What if the children don’t know much?
 Solutions: Provide children with lots and lots
of real life, genuine, emotionally charged, multi
sensory experiences.

45. EXAMPLES OF REAL
EXPERIENCES
Field trip to
farms
Field trip
to
factories
Appreciating
nature

46. EXAMPLES OF REAL
EXPERIENCES
Animal
Sanctuary
Dance & Song
Festival
A library
Mountains
A museum

47.  Listening, reading, writing and language skills
should be taught in the context of everyday
activities.
 E.g. (to develop children’s writing skills) A
teacher can help children creating a shopping
list of things to be purchased for an art activity.

48. F) TALK ABOUT READING,
WRITING, LISTENING AND
LANGUAGE
 Help children to learn their reading skills by
talking about literacy-related ideas and activities.
 E.g. Explain to children that “ We need to write
your baby sister’s birthday on the calendar, so we
won’t forget”.
Children understand that writing plays an
important role in daily life.
 E.g. Tell them to listen carefully to hear what
sound the word ends with “I don’t know how
much flour I need to make the cookies”.

49. PROMOTING
EMERGENT
LITERACY

50. PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY
DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN
1) Create a writing centre
Include different kinds of colours of
paper, crayons, pens, pencils, letter
stencils, ink pad and stamps,
calendar blanks, blank greeting
cards, markers and other related
items are available.

51. 2) Create a nurturing, relaxed place for reading
Provide a
variety of:
Books
Children’s
magazines
Cartoon books
Joke books
Print on the
walls :
Posters
Schedules for the day
and week
A list of things to do

52. PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY DEVELOPMENT
FOR CHILDREN
3)

53. PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY
DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN
4) Use writing in all activities

54. PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY DEVELOPMENT
FOR CHILDREN
5) Use a child’s name to generate activities.
Children learn to correctly write their name before
any other word.
e.g. write their name when they come to a program
when entering a learning centre
create a game where children match photos
with a written name.

55. PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY
DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN
6) Use photographs as a writing tool.
Ways to carry out an activity:
1) Take a came and do the field trips
with your children.
2) Take photos of street signs, store
signs, house number, bus stop
signs etc.
3) Print out the photos.
4) Help the children to order them,
paste them on a large piece of
paper and have the children dictate
to you events and descriptions
along the walk.

56. PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY
DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN
8) Develop a listening centre.
- Children can listen with earphones to music,
songs and tapes of books.

57. Receive mails from friends ,siblings or
maybe teachers
8) Make mail boxes with the
children.

58.  PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY
DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN
9) Encourage second language acquisition.

59. 10) Encourage art activities.
- Activities that involve using crayons, chalk,
pens, paint brushes, and sticks in the sand and
mud.

60. PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY
DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN
11) PLAY
 Many emergent literacy interventions can be
encouraged through play.
 Play is process oriented, not product oriented.
 Children learn through the process of playing,
not by creating a product or accomplishing a
task.
 Play provides a developmentally appropriate
context for learning about the functions of
reading and writing.
McLane & McNamee, 1991
Roskos, Christie, & Richgels, 2003

61. PROMOTING EARLY LITERACY
DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN
12) Provide a variety of music, dance, rhythm
and sound repetition activities.
- e.g. Casper slide