An Alternative Approach to Early Literacy: The Effects of ASL in Educational Media on Literacy Skills Acquisition for Hearing Children

PurposeChildren with hearing loss may not reach the same level of reading proficiency as their peers with typical development. Audiologists and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have important roles to play in preventing this problem early in children's development. In this tutorial, we aim to communicate how the habilitation practices of audiologists and intervention services of SLPs can support early literacy skill development in children with hearing loss.MethodWe describe key findings from peer-reviewed research articles to provide a review of early literacy skill development, to explain the relationship between early literacy skills and conventional reading skills, and to highlight findings from early literacy skill intervention studies that included children with hearing loss who use spoken language. We conclude with a hypothetical case study to illustrate how audiologists and SLPs can support early literacy acquisition in children with hearing loss.ConclusionFindings from studies of young children with hearing loss suggest that a promising approach to improving reading outcomes is to provide explicit early literacy instruction and intervention.

Download Full-text

Addressing African American English in Early Literacy Assessment and Instruction

Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations ◽

10.1044/cds15.2.54 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 54-61 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Nicole Patton Terry

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Early Literacy ◽

American English ◽

Critical Role ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

African American English ◽

Literacy Assessment ◽

Learning To Read ◽

Speech Language Pathologist ◽

Early Literacy Assessment

Abstract Determining how best to address young children's African American English use in formal literacy assessment and instruction is a challenge. Evidence is not yet available to discern which theory best accounts for the relation between AAE use and literacy skills or to delineate which dialect-informed educational practices are most effective for children in preschool and the primary grades. Nonetheless, consistent observations of an educationally significant relation between AAE use and various early literacy skills suggest that dialect variation should be considered in assessment and instruction practices involving children who are learning to read and write. The speech-language pathologist can play a critical role in instituting such practices in schools.

Download Full-text

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills 6th Edition (DIBELS)

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e313642005-022 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Keyword(s):

Early Literacy ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Early Literacy Skills ◽

Dynamic Indicators

Download Full-text

Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages6020106 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 106

Author(s):

Gillian Wigglesworth ◽

Melanie Wilkinson ◽

Yalmay Yunupingu ◽

Robyn Beecham ◽

Jake Stockley

Keyword(s):

Phonological Awareness ◽

Early Literacy ◽

First Language ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Intercultural Development ◽

Educational Challenges ◽

English Speaking ◽

Surrounding Areas ◽

Bilingual School ◽

The Impact

Phonological awareness is a skill which is crucial in learning to read. In this paper, we report on the challenges encountered while developing a digital application (app) for teaching phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Dhuwaya. Dhuwaya is a Yolŋu language variety spoken in Yirrkala and surrounding areas in East Arnhem Land. Dhuwaya is the first language of the children who attend a bilingual school in which Dhuwaya and English are the languages of instruction. Dhuwaya and English have different phonemic inventories and different alphabets. The Dhuwaya alphabet is based on Roman alphabet symbols and has 31 graphemes (compared to 26 in English). The app was designed to teach children how to segment and blend syllables and phonemes and to identify common words as well as suffixes used in the language. However, the development was not straightforward, and the impact of the linguistic, cultural and educational challenges could not have been predicted. Amongst these was the inherent variation in the language, including glottal stops, the pronunciation of stops, the focus on syllables as a decoding strategy for literacy development and challenges of finding one-syllable words such as those initially used with English-speaking children. Another challenge was identifying culturally appropriate images which the children could relate to and which were not copyrighted. In this paper, we discuss these plus a range of other issues that emerged, identifying how these problems were addressed and resolved by the interdisciplinary and intercultural team.

Download Full-text

Paternal and Maternal Cognitive Engagement and Preschoolers’ Literacy Skills Across Six Ethnic Groups in Suriname

Journal of Black Psychology ◽

10.1177/00957984211007698 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 009579842110076

Author(s):

Elif Dede Yildirim ◽

Jaipaul L. Roopnarine

Keyword(s):

Early Literacy ◽

Ethnic Groups ◽

Cognitive Engagement ◽

Sociodemographic Factors ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Sociodemographic Predictors ◽

Multiple Indicator ◽

Children's Literacy ◽

Cultural Ecological ◽

Paternal Engagement

Using propositions in cultural-ecological and maternal and paternal engagement models, this study utilized the 2018 UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys to examine which sociodemographic factors were associated with fathers’ and mothers’ cognitive engagement and the associations between parental and maternal cognitive engagement and preschoolers’ literacy skills in Amerindian, Maroon, Creole, Javanese, Hindustani, and Mixed-ethnic families in Suriname ( N = 1,008). After establishing measurement invariance in constructs across ethnic groups, analyses revealed few consistent sociodemographic predictors of paternal and maternal cognitive engagement. Patterns of associations between paternal and maternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills were not uniform across ethnic groups. Data have implications for understanding mothers’ and fathers’ contributions to children’s early literacy skills development and for developing parenting intervention programs in Suriname.

Download Full-text