Maternal exposure to a high-magnitude earthquake during pregnancy influences pre-reading skills in early childhood

Exposure to an adverse prenatal environment can influence fetal development and result in long-lasting changes in the offspring. However, the association between maternal exposure to stressful events during pregnancy and the achievement of pre-reading skills in the offspring is unknown. Here we examined the association between prenatal exposure to the Chilean high-magnitude earthquake that occurred on February 27th, 2010 and the development of early reading precursors skills (listening comprehension, print knowledge, alphabet knowledge, vocabulary, and phonological awareness) in children at kindergarten age. This multilevel retrospective cohort study including 3280 children, of whom 2415 were unexposed and 865 were prenatally exposed to the earthquake shows substantial evidence that maternal exposure to an unambiguously stressful event resulted in impaired pre-reading skills and that a higher detrimental effect was observed in those children who had been exposed to the earthquake during the first trimester of gestation. In addition, females were more significantly affected by the exposure to the earthquake than their male peers in alphabet knowledge; contrarily, males were more affected than females in print knowledge skills. These findings suggest that early intervention programs for pregnant women and/or children exposed to prenatal stress may be effective strategies to overcome impaired pre-reading skills in children.

Evaluating the Reporting Quality of Researcher-Developed Alphabet Knowledge Measures: How Transparent and Replicable Is It?

The American Educational Research Association and American Psychological Association published standards for reporting on research. The transparency of reporting measures and data collection is paramount for interpretability and replicability of research. We analyzed 57 articles that assessed alphabet knowledge (AK) using researcher-developed measures. The quality of reporting on different elements of AK measures and data collection was not related to the journal type nor to the impact factor or rank of the journal but rather seemed to depend on the individual author, reviewers, and journal editor. We propose various topics related to effective reporting of measures and data collection methods that we encourage the early childhood and literacy communities to discuss.

We Are in a Book : Using Metafictive Picture Books to Facilitate Emergent Literacy Goals

Purpose Literature-based intervention is used to facilitate both early language and emergent literacy goals, which supports success in later reading and writing. Best practices in choosing picture books to facilitate specific goals are limited, but one line of research asserts that different genres align with different goals. However, metafiction is one genre that is yet to be explored as a context for facilitating emergent literacy goals. Metafiction uses a variety of devices to draw attention to itself as an artifact providing unique learning opportunities. The purposes of this clinical focus article are to (a) introduce the different devices authors use in metafictive writing, (b) correlate individual devices with specific foundational literacy goals targeted in therapy (i.e., oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness, and alphabet knowledge), and (c) provide a sample session. A variety of metafictive picture books will be offered to illustrate these connections. Conclusion Metafictive picture books provide a rich context for facilitating emergent literacy goals because of the specific devices authors use in these texts.

The effects of a phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge intervention on four-year-old children in an early childhood setting

Phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK) are two of the strongest predictors of reading acquisition, and evidence shows that many New Zealand children are entering school with low levels of emergent literacy (EL) skills. The current research showed that four-year-old children identified as having low levels of EL, who participated in an evidence-based 10-week intervention using games and books, made significant gains in PA and AK in comparison to a control group. The children were assessed pre-intervention and post-intervention using the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening PreK and it was found that the PA and AK intervention used in this research was effective in significantly raising the levels of upper-case letter naming, letter-sound awareness and beginning sound awareness.

Early Literacy Skill Growth in Spanish-Speaking Children With and At Risk for Disabilities in Early Childhood

For young Spanish–English dual language learners (SE-DLLs), early literacy skills, including phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge in Spanish as well as English, are crucial to their reading success. However, there is a lack of research about how SE-DLLs develop early literacy skills, and how their rates of performance can inform evidence-based intervention. This article examined to what degree SE-DLLs with disabilities or at risk for later reading difficulties on early literacy skills demonstrated growth on English and Spanish measures of early literacy when compared with their typically developing peers. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze growth for 325 SE-DLLs on four Individual Growth and Development Indicators that assessed phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge in English and Spanish. Results indicated that at-risk and typically developing children showed significant slopes for all measures and that at-risk children grew faster than typically developing children on Spanish alphabet knowledge measures.

Using Alphabet Knowledge to Track the Emergent Literacy Skills of Children in Head Start

Having strong alphabet knowledge early in life is a powerful predictor of long-term reading and academic outcomes. Upon tracking the alphabet knowledge of 172 children enrolled in their first year of Head Start, we identified that most of the children could name fewer than 10 letters at the beginning of the academic year. Approximately, one third of the children with low alphabet knowledge in fall made significant progress and demonstrated mastery of 10 or more letters in spring. For the children who started the year knowing fewer than 10 letters, receptive vocabulary was the best predictor of who would make gains in alphabet knowledge throughout the year. In addition, most children who entered Head Start knowing fewer than 10 letters knew letters from their first names and the letters A, B, or O. Implications for the management of emergent literacy skills for children at-risk for academic difficulties are discussed.