Emergent Literacy: Encouraging Early Reading Skills in Young Children

Emergent literacy is the earliest period or stage of learning to read and write (Temple, Crawford, Ogle & Freppon, 2014, p13). It is a process involving the development of language and print concepts, especially as they begin to link together. Children learn how to read before they are taught how to read. Starting as early as birth, they acquire some knowledge about language, reading and writing prior to entering school. The development occurs in the everyday contexts of the home and the community. Nevertheless, there are several elements for children to acquire in order to fully develop their awareness of literacy.

.The two brochures that I would introduce to the parents. The first one Why Read Aloud to Children. Second Why Some Read A lot and Some Very Little. Why read aloud to children, it develops their listening skills. When they listen they are thinking. It also develops their vocabulary skills, builds new words. Children mimic what they hear. Reading exposes children to stories that create imagination, and fresh ideas in their mind. Without these skills it hard for children to comprehend what’s going on. Gives them motivation and builds a great foundation for success in their lives. The more parents talk to their children and read to them, their vocabulary expands and language skills come into play. Second, Why some read a lot and some very little.

Learning to read is beginning to develop earlier in elementary grades. Students are expected to be emergent readers by the time he or she leaves kindergarten and enters first grade. If a child is not, he or she is labeled as being behind. According to Hughes (2007) emergent readers are using early reading strategies in consistently, read easy patterned text, retell text with simple storyline, and respond to text at a literal level. Hughes (2007) also says literacy develops in young children through play, daily conversation and interactions with text of all kinds. Many children come with emergent literacy skills; can recognize signs and labels, scribble letters, retell stories by pointing at pictures and talking about them, and some have varying degrees of phonemic and phonological awareness. This essay will define and explain implication for each theory in learning to read.

Reading in these groups teaches the children to take turns, listen, offer support to one another, share views, stretch their imagination and raise their self-esteem.

I believe that reading is an important way for children to learn. However, there has to be a combination of everything. The primary goal of language and literacy during the infant and toddler years is to help children hear and distinguish the sounds of language in their environment (p.44). I believe that children need to play in order to develop their fine, gross, and other skills. The need to explore and the experience will help them to self-regulate their emotions. According to the article, the most effective ways to prepare your baby for reading involve playing games and sharing book, and repeating words.

Through the course, I learned that there are many benefits of reading books to children. Children would improve their communicative skills by talking about their favorite part of the story. Children would respect each other by taking turns. They would improve their cognitive skills by predicting the events of a story. Moreover, reading books would expand children’s vocabularies by introducing new words.

According to May (1990, p. 59) emergent literacy is the process of learning. It is a product of children’s explorations with concepts and conventions about language with which they are familiar.

Reading is an important part of today’s society. Being able to read and write defines populaces as educated, successful and intelligent, since the world revolves around written language. Being literate is a vital tool of survival in today’s civilization. Reading is not only important for basic day-to-day functions, but also helps to form a stronger self-disciple, longer attention span and better memory retention. From the moment a child is born, caregivers begin reading to their child.

Children that are exposed to different types of print and books are better readers and writers than those that have not been exposed to print and books. There should be a lot of reading material in the child’s environment, home and school. Exposing your child to bookstores and libraries at an early age will foster the child’s interest in literature. Another way early childhood literacy can be formed is giving your child support and encouragement for your child’s progress in literacy. A caregiver can help increase a child’s literacy by reading storybooks to the child, getting the child involved in activities that help them in reading and writing and applying them. This is done by providing learning opportunities so the child can use what they have learnt and making sure there is the right print materials. Having the caregivers model literacy activities with the children enhances the child’s literacy and helps them to want to be engaged in it. (Strickland, D. S., & Riley-Ayers, S. (2006, April). When a child grows up in a place where an adult shows the child literacy behavior they will want to do the same behavior. This can be writing a letter, reading or just writing a shopping

Children can take more than one of these steps at the same time. This list of steps, though, gives you a general idea of how your child will progress toward reading.” (Helping your child become a reader) While these ideas may seem structured, it is also important to allow children to be creative and use their imagination. Although reading is imperative, too many arrangements and rules can turn a child off and lead to feelings of resentment, anger, and resistance. Reading should be set to the tone and pace of the child.

Learning to read is a valuable and important skill that children acquire from a very early age. Children gain an understanding of the different sounds in our spoken language from a wide range of different experiences and social interaction with their environment. For example, singing and saying rhymes, sharing books, making and listening to music, pretend play, listening to adults and joining in conversations etc ect. as mentioned by Vygotsky (1978)

Reading is a skill often taken for granted but it is essential in order to progress in life. For a child being able to read well helps them learn new things, give ideas and enables use of imagination. National literacy trust (2015) suggests that children’s early language skills can have a major impact on a child’s development of literacy skills. Five-year olds with poor language and literacy have a higher risk of underachieving at age seven and beyond. Reading skills encourage more opportunities in life and it can affect a child’s wellbeing if they do not achieve this effectively (Finnegan,2015).

Reading to a child has a tremendous impact on their language development. The more a child is read to the more connections are made in the brain. Rereading the same book helps the child make connections between the way the words look and sound.

Emergent literacy replaced the term reading readiness through the 1980s-1990s. Emergent literacy is based upon the notion that children learn literacy skills through print. Teale and Sulzby (1991) proposed that emergent literacy be recognized as a new model for conceptualizing young children 's written language development. Teale and Sulzby defined emergent literacy as "the reading and writing concepts, behaviors, and dispositions that precede and develop into conventional literacy" (Teale, 1995, p.107).

Reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes and it is also an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader.