An examination of the heterogenous nature of literacy development in Spanish-speaking preschool children

The present investigation compared two testing instruments for evaluating the grammatical skills of Spanish-speaking preschool children. The Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test-Preschool (SPELT-P, Werner & Kresheck, 1989) was compared to a structured task activity developed by the investigator. Both procedures targeted the same grammatical forms. Results indicated that the structured task procedure was more effective in evaluating children’s productive knowledge of the grammatical forms tested. Children performed significantly better in this task. Procedural differences across the testing instruments were responsible for the observed differences. Issues concerning the effect of task on performance are discussed as they relate to the assessment of the culturally and linguistically diverse child.

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Narrative Development in Monolingual Spanish-Speaking Preschool Children

Early Education and Development ◽

10.1080/10409289.2015.1027623 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 26 (8) ◽

pp. 1166-1186 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Anny Castilla-Earls ◽

Douglas Petersen ◽

Trina Spencer ◽

Krista Hammer

Keyword(s):

Preschool Children ◽

Narrative Development ◽

Spanish Speaking

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Preschool Children’s Drawings: Frequency and Theme Analysis

International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies ◽

10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.9n.3p.70 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 70

Author(s):

Jana Marie Havigerová ◽

Yveta Pohnětalová ◽

Kateřina Strnadová ◽

Karolína Kocourková ◽

Dominika Podubecká

Keyword(s):

Preschool Children ◽

Frequency Analysis ◽

Literacy Development ◽

Golden Age ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Children's Drawings ◽

Natural Objects ◽

Children’S Drawings ◽

Practical Impact

The preschool age is called the golden age of drawing; drawing is a “golden” mediator of literacy development. In this article, we focus on the content the preschool children put into their drawings. The goal of study has been the comparison of preschool children’s drawings with respect to the thematic categories of drawn object, and to identify differences between boys and girls. There were analyzed pictures (N=61) drawn by preschool children, from 5 years and 9 months to 6 years and 11 months. Pictures were drawn following the content-neutral (indifferent) instruction: “Draw, what is on your mind now.” The obtained data were subjected to thematic and frequency analysis. Results: data shows that the average number of objects is higher in girls’ drawings: girls drew 4±5 objects on average, while boys drew only 2±2. The number of drawn objects increases with age. Objects drawn could be divided onto 14 thematic categories; most popular are natural objects (sun, mammal, flowers, clouds etc.). The most popular theme in the group of boys are Vehicles, in girls group themes vary more. Practical impact: if we know what children like to draw, we have a strong motivating element for the development of communication literacy, especially writing.

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