How Language Abilities and Deficiencies Impact Literacy Development

The learning provisions for development in literacy are extremely important and can be reached by using their language skills. They learn to communicate with others through three main ways: they are Speaking, Reading and Writing. These three areas interact with each other and develop the Childs self-expression and imagination. They must be given the opportunity within all different subject areas to use and extend their language so that their thinking skills progress to a higher level.

Literacy has the power to transform us. By reading we learn new things and we are more likely to express ourselves to others. We can understand another’s language, other cultures, and know the way others way of thought.

Numerous studies have been done in this area as there are many children living in poverty in North America and all across the world. There are roughly over one billion children living in poverty around the world (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2010). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United describes poverty as “Lack of knowledge and good skills in herding was widely given as a main cause of poverty.” Living in poverty can seriously affect a child’s life as the child would not be able to go to school or would do poorly because there was nothing to eat at home so they would not be able concentrate. The child when old enough would have to work all day to make money for the family and many other harsh realities throughout their lifetime. Throughout the course of this paper I will be explain how poverty effects language development of a child because of the reasons of parental education and having a low socioeconomic status. In this paper, I do talk a lot about school statistics a number of times but that is because I believe if one does not have their language skills fully developed the results will show in their work ethic and grades in school. It is important to understand that poverty does not have a direct consequence to language development but it is things associated with poverty such as parental education, health care, child care, low socioeconomic status and many other variables that play an influence in

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.

Since literacy evolves with changes in cultural communicative practices and technological developments, so too do definitions of what literacy is. There is some agreement on what literacy involves, and most definitions include reading, writing, speaking and listening, and sometimes viewing or visual literacy. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia [EYLF] (DEEWR, 2009, p.38) defines literacy as “a students’ capacity to access, manage, interpret and reflect on written texts in order to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society”. But why is literacy so important? Research shows that people with good literacy skills are more likely to have greater self-esteem, improved health, better jobs and higher wages than those with poor literacy skills. They are more able to take advantage of the opportunities that life may offer them. In order to acquire and share an important text, teachers need to consider a number of variables relating to students’, as according to Larson and Marsh in Making Literacy Real (2014) “literacy is grounded in social, cultural, historical and political practices”. In addition to appropriate literature, the NRP (National Reading Panel, 2000) noted that phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are crucial for effective reading instruction. The recommendations were that all students be explicitly and systematically taught these five key components.

While in utero, a child starts to develop its auditory senses. This is supported by the findings that show fetuses responding to sounds that they heard in utero after birth (Feldman, Jankowski & Rose, 2003). While this may be viewed as a good basis to teach reading to infants, it does not provide a wide enough basis to actually comprehend complex linguistics. Memory and attention is another section of cognition that is necessary in order to comprehend reading.

Young children imitate what they see adults do in society. On such thing is reading. Children will take up any form of literature and pretend that they are reading. To enhance and cater for this behaviour parents and teachers can:

Competence and confidence in literacy, including competence in the three major areas, reading, writing, speaking and listening, are essential for progress in all areas of the curriculum. To broaden and enhance children’s literacy skills, opportunities need to be given by providing them with a wide range of different contexts in which to use and practice there skills. With reference to the aims of the Primary Framework for Literacy ‘To support and

For a child who is just starting to learn to read, they need sufficient practice in reading a variety of different books to achieve fluency. Reading can be complex and has many different aspects (Burns,1999). It is suggested that children who have problems reading and writing at a young age will find it hard to catch up as they get older and will not reach their full potential as adults, many will withdraw from school or society and some becoming involved with crime (MacBlain,2014). 40 percent of children find learning to read a challenge but with early help, most reading problems can be prevented (Reading Rockets, n.d.).

he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:

Literacy is much more in depth than just the ability to see a word and comprehend it thus, in turn, being able to write the word down. Literacy affects our everyday lives in so many ways. For example, literacy affects education, the work force, and ones successes in life. Just think, without the ability to read and write jobs would be terribly difficult. Individuals would not be able to fully communicate their desires with their coworkers. This issue makes accomplishing certain tasks within the work force less easily obtained. Having the sole underlying skills of literacy makes implementing certain tasks much easier. From an education stand point, literacy allows us the information needed to learn. Each and every person has an individual skill that they thrive in. For example, Zac Efron is a world renowned actor best known for his comedic yet sensitive roles. Without the ability to read and write he would not be able to learn his script, therefor his career would never have happened. . As well as the effect it has on the work place, also is evident from an educational stand point. Teachers must perfect the art of literacy in order to implement their teachings. Students more often than not learn

"In any literate society, people constantly see the best way to teach children how to read and write so that the younger generation can become fully functioning members of that society." (Savage 15) This is obviously an important goal of any society that wants their children to be well educated and succeed in the world. Learning to be literate is a very important developmental milestone that is recognized cross-culturally. Its social importance is shown in the fact that in school; literacy makes up 2/3 of the three "R's". (Savage 15)

Through this week learning resources, I have learned that there are evidences that demonstrate that when a child has limited experiences he or she is more likely to have difficult comprehending what is read. It is why early childhood professionals affirm that oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Everything that children learn about speaking and listening they use for writing and reading and what they learn from writing and reading they use in listening and speaking. In other words, oral language and literacy develop simultaneously. When parents provide rich language and literacy reinforcement at home, children do better in school than those who do not. It is also known for early childhood professionals that for a child with limited experiences is more difficult comprehending what is read. For example, a child who has being exposed to many environments like a farm or like a museum will have more mentally engagement in classrooms activities about things he or she already know that children who have not had experience in those environments. Many researches showed that children that have not have a literacy development or an oral language development years before formal schooling, are less likely to be successful beginning readers, opening an achievement lag that might last through the primary grades. Some of the reasons why parents are not actively involved into their children’s educations are their socioeconomic or legal status. For example, in an immigrant family sometimes both parents have to work and sometimes they have to work two shifts. I have known families where children are the whole day in school and with nannies. Those children do not develop any skills that help them to succeed at the time of attending forming school.

Constructive early language and literacy development can be an ally to opening a child’s (ren) imagination; this will enhance and empower their potential to become successful readers. As the children grow (birth to 3 yrs. old) their brain goes through an extradinary developmental process and they begin to think, learn, communicate and rationalize things. When this early developmental stage is not being nourished the child will feel the affects of it in the long run. Children that come from low-income families that are enrolled in schools are affected the most. Educators and parents can assist these children by giving them the support (early-on) that they need to sustain a healthy learning environment. As educators it is our duty to create an environment that will help in this process.

Written language has a history of 6,000 years and various across many systems such as symbolic and alphabetic representations. Early language development is a process of association. Toddlers and children associate various sensory inputs with meaning and begin to learn a systematic code of signs, sounds, and symbols that become language. Toddlers learn much about spoken language and then in early childhood, children begin to map spoken words to written words. Literacy development in children begins with visual form recognition and is followed by concept development, spoken language development, and written language development.