Educators are placing increasing emphasis on developing literacy requirements for young children. This book reviews research on emergent literacy among preschool and kindergarten children and provides suggestions for kindergarten teachers to create instructional programs that enhance children's literacy learning and to avoid developmentally inappropriate practices. Chapter 1 of the book points out reasons for taking a fresh look at current emergent literacy programs. Chapter 2 examines linguistic features that function as cues in written language to better enable teachers to effectively scaffold children into literacy. Chapter 3 reviews research on the components of comprehension, including concepts about print, books, and written text, vocabulary, and the text structure of the narrative and expository genre. Chapter 4 reviews research on the components of phonological processing, including phonemic awareness and phonological recoding. Chapter 5 presents a review of research on children's writing in preschool and kindergarten. Chapter 6 presents suggested activities and learning strategies related to the research. Chapter 7 presents an overall summary of the research and activities with special emphasis on kindergarten and includes suggestions for kindergarten teachers. The book's two appendices list addresses of selected professional organizations, and activities and learning strategies related to California standards. (Contains 136 references.) (KB)