Combining the language experience approach and phonics instruction, this guide provides parents and early childhood teachers a comprehensive resource for developing a strong foundation for pre-readers. The guide offers over 1,000 activities, games, fingerplays, songs, tongue-twisters, poems, and stories for the letters of the alphabet to develop a…

This book is intended to help preservice and inservice teachers, parents, and other caregivers of young children to be aware of and supportive of children's literacy knowledge as it grows and changes in the years from birth through early elementary school. It provides a guide to the long continuum of literacy growth, from the very beginning years,…

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)