How Does Toddlers’ Engagement in Literacy Activities Influence Their Language Abilities?

The most intensive period of language development is during the first years of life, during which the brain is developing rapidly. Research has shown that children from disadvantaged households who received high-quality stimulation at a young age grew into adults who earned an average of 25% more than those who did not receive these interventions. In addition, it has been suggested that children who show a greater interest in literacy-related activities and voluntarily engage in them are likely to become better readers than children with less interest in literacy. These children’s factors, along with their engagement in literacy activities, are important components in children’s early literacy experiences and may affect their early language development. In this study, we examined associations among maternal education, home literacy environment (HLE), children’s interest and engagement in literacy activities, and language development of 44 toddlers aged between 20 and 36 months. Overall, results showed that only children’s engagement in literacy activities was related to vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills, whereas maternal education, HLE, and children’s interests were not. These results suggest that taking advantage of individual children’s interests by planning activities in which children are fully engaged, may be effective strategies for promoting children’s oral language development.

African American Parents' Perceptions of Early Literacy Strategies

Few research-based family studies have focused specifically on the perceptions of African American hearing parents' use of home literacy strategies. This study was conducted with a small group of African American families, taking into account family's individual literacy needs (African American hearing families with deaf/hard of hearing [DHH] children), African-American culture and language, emergent literacy research, American Sign Language (ASL), and parent-child book reading strategies. The purpose of this study was to document parental perception of the literacy process, while establishing opportunities for parents to practice under the guidance of mentors and within the home environment. Recordings documented parental progress and their comments about the reading process. Field notes were generated from the mentors' discussions with parents. This exploratory case study identified changes in parental perception of communication and literacy development during a nine-week intervention and records their reactions to those support strategies.

Incorporating Digital Literacy Materials in Early Childhood Programs

Use of digital media in early childhood literacy programs offers significant opportunities for interaction, engagement, and meaningful practice of phonic skills—and also a few pitfalls. The purpose of this chapter is to review 1) considerations for use of digital media in early childhood settings, 2) selection of appropriate media to facilitate early literacy learning, and 3) inclusion of digital media as an integral component of early literacy instruction, rather than an add-on. With an emphasis on practical ideas and solutions for instructors, the authors draw on studies in which interactive, personalized ebooks and an early literacy learning app were used in conjunction with face-to-face, hands-on activities drawn from Project SEEL (Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy).

From story to book: Discourse analysis between teacher and student in the creation of a culturally relevant text

Lack of representation of children from nondominant cultural and linguistic backgrounds continues to be problematic in children’s literature, and especially within early literacy texts for beginning readers. One remedy is for children to tell their own stories through the language experience approach, which can then be printed into culturally relevant texts and used for beginning reading material in classrooms. To truly capture a student’s story, especially if the student is an emergent bilingual, a teacher must listen very closely and take care when adjusting the child’s story. Two Bakhtinian concepts support the careful examination of a teacher’s scribing of story in this study: chronotope, used here as the time-space sphere above the text, and revoicing, or the retelling of a child’s story that is paraphrased or altered. Findings show that gesture within the chronotope of the story is an especially generative tool for student storytelling and that teachers must reflect closely on intentional or unintentional reasons for revoicing a child’s story. Language experience approach holds possibilities for the creation of children’s culturally relevant texts. As such, it is important that teachers reflect on their language experience approach techniques so that the book remains true to the child’s story.

Letter's recognition in early literacy through snakes and ladder games

This study aims to determine the process of applying the game of snakes and ladders in increasing letter recognition in children aged 4-5 years at the Pembina State Kindergarten of Langsa City and to see the activities of children in learning to recognize letters using the game of snakes and ladders. This research is a type of Classroom Action Research (CAR). The subjects in this study were the 17 children of group B of the Pembina State Kindergarten in Langsa City. The method used in data collection, namely, observation and interviews. Data collection techniques using descriptive quantitative. The results of the study showed that the game of snakes and ladders can improve children's ability to recognize letters. At the time of pre-action observation, the percentage of ability to recognize letters was 43% with indicators recognizing letter symbols 15%, making meaningful scribbles 15%, writing and speaking letters (A-Z) 11.7%. In the first cycle the percentage of increase in children's letter recognition was 66.4% with a category of 15 children starting to develop 2 children developing according to expectations (BSH) with indicators recognizing letter symbols 20.5%, making meaningful scribbles 23.5%, writing and writing. pronounce the letters (AZ) 22%. Furthermore, in cycle II there was a very significant increase, namely 98% with the criteria of 13 children developing as expected (BSH) and 4 children developing very well (BSB) with indicators recognizing letter symbols 33%, making meaningful scribbles 32%, writing and speaking letters (AZ) 32%. Based on the description of the results of the research before the action, cycle I and cycle II, it can be concluded that the snake and ladder game is able to improve the ability to recognize children's letters in the Pembina State Kindergarten of Langsa City.

Protagonismo negro na literatura infantil: por uma abordagem antirracista do texto literário

RESUMO O presente artigo propõe uma reflexão acerca da importância do ensino da literatura dentro de uma proposta pedagógica na Educação Infantil preocupada com a Educação das relações étnico-raciais no Brasil. Ademais, busca pensar a formação do leitor literário numa perspectiva identitária para a promoção de uma Educação antirracista continuada. O trabalho reúne os seguintes aportes teóricos: Cosson (2012), Bordini e Aguiar (1993), Brasil (2004; 2017), Munanga (2005), entre outros. Quanto à metodologia, consiste em uma pesquisa bibliográfica e uma análise descritiva das seguintes obras literárias infantis: Amoras (2018), de Emicida, e Meu crespo é de rainha (2018), de bell hooks[1]. Conclui-se que esta pesquisa se torna relevante uma vez que segue as determinações da Lei 10.639/2003, que alude à obrigatoriedade do ensino da questão étnico-racial, temática que carece mais atenção na Educação Básica, desencadeando e propondo atender a questões presentes no ensino na Educação Infantil, oferecendo possibilidades por meio da literatura para um letramento étnico-racial efetivo e precoce. Palavras-chave: Formação de leitores; educação infantil; representatividade; letramento étnico-racial. ABSTRACT The present article aims at discussing the importance of teaching literature for children within the scope of a pedagogical approach concerned with ethnic-racial relations education, from children`s education on, in Brazil. Furthermore, it aims at thinking about the literary reader`s literacy according to an identity perspective so that it promotes antiracist education over the time. The paper brings the following authors together: Cosson (2012), Bordini e Aguiar (1993), Brasil (2004; 2017), Munanga (2005), among others. It consists of a bibliographical survey approach and a descriptive analysis of the following children books: Amoras (2018), by Emicida, and Meu crespo é de rainha (2018), by bell hooks. The relevance of the work lays on the fact it has followed Federal Law n. 10.639/2003, which has imposed the teaching of ethnic-racial issues in Brazil. This theme wants to be given more attention in Basic Education so that it answers issues that are present in early education, in order to offer children many possibilities through literature to ethnic-racial effective and early literacy. Keywords: Training of readers; childhood education; representativeness; ethnic-racial literacy.

My Writing: An E-LEA-Based Android Application to Develop Kindergarten Children's Early Literacy

My Writing is a tool that preschool children can use to improve their reading and writing skills, which can be used both at school and at home. This tool was developed based on the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and is in the form of an Android application designed for children. It is used to help children understand that the spoken language can be altered into the written one and still retains its meaning. 10 teachers were included in this study and data were collected from teacher opinions and assessments. The findings showed that My Writing is an effective application for developing literacy in young children, and that it is easy to use by children and parents, making it simple for teachers to assess children’s literacy skills while they study at home. Keywords: Language Experience Approach (LEA), Digital LEA, E-LEA, My Writing, early reading and writing