Reviews approximately 15 years of exploration of children's emergent writing and the transition into conventional writing, covering the period from infancy through first grade. Illustrates a progression from descriptions of children's proficiencies to collaborations between classroom- and university-based educators that are aimed at increasing…

Reports early findings from a longitudinal study of low socioeconomic status urban African-American kindergarten/first-grade children's emergent readings of literature. Finds that these children showed similar developmental patterns to those in previous studies, but they initially declared vehemently that they could not read. (RS)

A study required children to tell and to dictate stories that were real and make believe, all about the same basic topic, as part of things people do when they "write a story." A further purpose was to explore the reading knowledge of children who are just beginning to read. Children's reading attempts for these stories were used to…

Discusses the need for systematic exploration of claims about the advantages of language experience dictations; recommends that teachers guide the rereading and editing of early dictations to facilitate comprehending behaviors, and that they help children explore writing conventions as their dictations indicate a readiness to learn them. (ET)

A 3-year longitudinal study combined research in emergent storybook reading with research in parent-child interaction across income and cultural groups. In San Antonio, Texas, 8 families (4 each of low and middle income, with 2 families in each group being of Mexican-American heritage and 2 of Anglo heritage) tape recorded 1 storybook reading…

In 1981, a scale, the Emergent Reading Ability Judgments for Dictated and Handwritten Stories, was developed for use in assessing how close a child was to reading independently based upon the nature of the child's attempts to read from dictated and handwritten stories. A study was conducted to apply the scale to stories from a new sample of…

To determine how children's knowledge about word boundaries differs at given points in time, writing samples were gathered from nine kindergarten children using similar procedures. Also examined were children's statements while composing and rereading as well as children's questions and information elicitations. Three of the subjects were judged…

Emergent reading attempts of 24 children at the beginning of their kindergarten year are content analyzed in light of theoretical considerations about general and language development. In addition, the reading attempts of two-, three-, and four-year olds are examined. Comparison of data reveal a developmental progress across age-levels. (HOD)

Kindergarten children differ in how close they are to becoming readers and writers. A study investigated the dictated and handwritten materials of 24 kindergarten children. In each of two sessions, three language productions were obtained: a told story, a dictated story, and a handwritten story. Additionally, samples of rereading and editing were…

The product of a two-year study investigating the literacy behavior of nine kindergarten students and their classmates, this report first explains the impetus and the theoretical foundations for the investigation and describes its subjects and setting. It then presents the methodology and the data collected from several related studies: (1)…

This report gives a history of the 1979-80 segment of a continuing project that is designed to provide a theoretically based description of children's transition from prereading to reading, along with tools that teachers may use to assess children's emerging literacy abilities. The first chapter provides an introduction to the project, while the…