Synthesizing information on language arts gleaned from research on emergent literacy, early childhood education, and special education, this book underscores what is being emphasized in early childhood teacher accreditation programs--responding to the increasingly diverse needs of young language learners in inclusive settings, working with parents…

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) follows a nationally representative sample of children from kindergarten through fifth grade. This study analyzed the first results from the ECLS-K about kindergartners performance on a variety of reading and mathematics tasks, and it gathered valuable contextual…

This book for beginning readers tells the story of five South Africans who, though not very famous, all did things that no black South African had ever done before. They include: Simon Mkhize who, year after year, ran the Comrades Marathon unofficially, ignoring its racial bans; Magema M. Fuze, who was the first black South African to publish a…

Designed to be useful for teachers, students, and parents, this resource book contains skill-appropriate, easy-to-follow activities for emergent readers. Noting that helping children become successful readers by developing reading readiness skills and a love for literature requires careful planning and instruction, the book states that children…

This study examined how 3 Dominican children, ages 2 to 4 years old explore reading and writing in the context of their everyday lives and how adults and older siblings socialize young children into literacy. Data were collected during a school year. Each participant was observed 3 times a week for 2 hours per session, totaling approximately 200…

This booklet offers practical, up-to-date information on early childhood literacy for those who interact with young children. Topics addressed by the booklet include: (1) supportive learning environments; (2) learning to talk; (3) optimizing learning; (4) supporting the literacy development of young children; and (5) fundamental principles for…

Asserting that early education is the most cost-effective way to decrease the number of unskilled adults in the future, this report discusses the need to promote language and literacy learning in young children as a way to bolster the country's future workforce. Sections of the report discuss: (1) "Child Care: The Perfect Place to Develop…

Reports the findings of a study indicating that reading aloud to Black first grade students in an inner city area expanded significantly their knowledge of specific topics. (FL)

Discusses advantages--and a few disadvantages--of using social sight words (such as "sale,""stop," and "exit") in introducing young children to reading; suggests learning activities involving such words. (GT)

An investigation of the relationship of four perceptual and perceptual-motor skills to two measures of reading achievement in normal and learning disabled children in the second grade suggested that deficits in perceptual skills are not highly related to reading performance. (MKM)

This study identified a repertoire of early-life experiences to which young children with visual impairments need to be exposed to develop a foundation for literacy. By analyzing 254 stories from three published basal literacy series, 22 global areas of experience were determined to be essential. Guidelines for providing these experiences and…

Gives advanced and novice readers in grade one and older disabled readers nonword reading and spelling tasks. Finds that disabled readers read as many nonwords and spelled as many words as beginning readers, indicating equivalent alphabetic knowledge. Finds that disabled readers took significantly more trials to read 16 target words, indicating…