Research on the Development and
Promotion of Emergent Literacy Skills
in Young Children
Christopher J. Lonigan, Ph.D.
Florida State University
Florida Center for Reading Research
Supported by
National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (HD/MH38880, HD36067, HD36509)
Administration for Children and Families
(90YF0023)
What is Emergent Literacy?
Emergent Literacy
Emergent literacy involves the skills,
knowledge, and attitudes that are
developmental precursors to conventional
forms of reading and writing (Whitehurst
& Lonigan, 1998).
Emergent Literacy
Emergent literacy skills are the basic
building blocks for learning to read and
write.
Emergent Literacy
Emergent literacy skills begin developing
in early infancy and early childhood
through participation with adults in
meaningful activities involving talking and
print.
Emergent Literacy
There are three domains of emergent
literacy skills that are related to later
(conventional) reading and writing.
Oral Language
Print Knowledge
Phonological Processing
Emergent Literacy
These three skills are the foundation for
how easily, quickly, and well children
learn to read and write once they begin
kindergarten and first grade.
Emergent Literacy
Research shows that these three skills,
measured when children are in preschool,
predict how well the children will be
reading in the first grade.
Oral Language Skills
Oral Language Skills
Vocabulary Knowledge
Syntactic Knowledge
Narrative Understanding
Oral Language Skills
Knowing words is key to learning to read.
Reading is a different way of
communicating.
Difficult to learn to read words if you
do not know words (i.e., what they
mean; what they represent).
Oral Language Skills
More complex oral language skills are
most important later in the process of
learning to read. They help children
understand what is being read.
Print Knowledge
Print Knowledge
Understanding that it is the print that
reflects the words and not other parts
of books, like the pictures or the spaces
between words.
Understanding that there are 26
different letters in English and that
letters can look different and still be
the same letter, as is the case for upper
and lower case letters (or different print
styles).
Print Knowledge
Children need to learn that there are
different sounds associated with each
letter.
This task is difficult because sometimes
each letter can represent multiple sounds
(e.g., g and s), or the same sound can
be associated with different letters
(e.g., c and k)!
Phonological Processing Skills
Phonological Processing Skills
Alphabetic languages represent language
at the phoneme level (i.e., letters
typically correspond to phonemes in
words).
Almost all poor readers have a problem
with phonological processing.
Phonological Processing Skills
Phonological Memory
Phonological Access
Phonological Sensitivity
Phonological Processing Skills
Better phonological memory--the ability
to hold sound-based information in
immediate memory--may increase the
likelihood that the phonemes associated
with the letters of a word can be
maintained in memory while decoding,
freeing more cognitive resources for
decoding and comprehension.
Phonological Processing Skills
Better phonological access--the retrieval
of sound-based codes from memory--
may increase the ease of retrieval of
phonological codes associated with
letters, word segments, and whole words
from memory, making it more likely that
they can be used in decoding.
Phonological Processing Skills
Better phonological sensitivity (i.e., the
ability to apprehend and/or manipulate
smaller and smaller units of sound)
facilitates the connection between
letters and the sounds they represent in
words.
Phonological Processing Skills
Almost all research on phonological
processing skills in preschool children has
examined phonological sensitivity.
Phonological Sensitivity
Phonological Sensitivity
... involves understanding that words are
made up of smaller sounds, like...
syllables (i.e., the natural breaks in
spoken words, like but er fly in the
word butterfly)
phonemes (i.e., the smallest speech
sounds; sounds typically depicted by
letters; e.g., the sound of the letter B,
is the first phoneme in the word bat)
Phonological Sensitivity
Understanding that words are made up of
smaller sounds helps children break the
code between written language (the
letters) and spoken language (the
sounds).
Phonological Sensitivity
Developing phonological sensitivity is
hard!
Phonemes do not really exist!
We co-articulate the phonemes in
words when we speak.
Development of Phonological Sensitivity
Development of Phonological Sensitivity
Phonological sensitivity develops in a
progressive fashion with sensitivity to
smaller and smaller units of sound across
the preschool period
The significance of preschool
phonological sensitivity
Significance of Preschool Phonological
Sensitivity
One-year longitudinal study of 100 4-
and 5-year-old children from higher SES
backgrounds (Lonigan et al., 2000).
All children completed phonological
sensitivity measures, tests of oral
language, tests of print awareness, and
other emergent literacy measures (e.g.,
concepts about print) in preschool and
12-months later.
Significance of Preschool Phonological
Sensitivity
Zero-order Correlations between Time 1 Emergent Literacy Skills and Time 2
Emergent Literacy and Reading Skills for Older Sample
Time 2 Variables
Phonological Letter Reading Concepts of
Sensitivity Knowledge Print
Phonological Sensitivity 1.00*** .48*** .60*** .44***
Environmental Print .59*** .42*** .51** .18
Letter Knowledge .64*** .80*** .51*** .37**
Concepts of Print .60*** .35*** .40*** .62***
Development of Phonological Sensitivity
Children at Risk for Reading Difficulties
Development of Phonological Sensitivity
SES Differences in Phonological Sensitivity
Cross-sectional study comparing the
performance of 250 children from higher
income families to 170 children from
lower income families.
Children were between two- and five-
years of age.
SES Differences in Phonological
Sensitivity
Children completed tests of phonological
sensitivity that assessed their ability to
detect, blend, or elide words, syllables,
onset-rimes, or phonemes.
Children also completed several oral
language measures (e.g., PPVT,
EOWPVT).
SES Differences in Phonological
Sensitivity
Because of significant differences on the
oral language measures, analyses
examined language-corrected scores on
the phonological sensitivity measures.
SES Differences in Phonological
Sensitivity
Children from lower SES backgrounds
have significantly less well developed
phonological sensitivity.
Children from lower SES backgrounds
experience significantly less growth in
these skills during the preschool years
compared to their higher SES
counterparts.
Growth and Stability of Preschool
Emergent Literacy Skills in At-Risk
Children
Growth and Stability of Emergent
Literacy in At-Risk Preschool Children
One-year longitudinal study of 325 3- to
5-year-olds attending Head Start.
Children completed assessments of
phonological processing skills (sensitivity,
access, memory), print awareness, and
oral language three times during the
Head Start year.
Growth and Stability of Emergent
Literacy in At-Risk Preschool Children
.82
Phonological Phonological Phonological
.95 .90
Sensitivity Sensitivity Sensitivity
September January May
Stability of Phonological Sensitivity Across the Head Start Year
Growth and Stability of Emergent
Literacy in At-Risk Preschool Children
Children from lower SES backgrounds are
at risk of later reading difficulties
because of overall slower development of
emergent literacy skills and the high
degree of stability of these skills.
In the absence of effective intervention,
children from lower SES backgrounds are
unlikely to arrive at school ready to
benefit from reading instruction.
Interventions for children at risk for
later reading problems
Dialogic Reading Studies
Phonological Sensitivity Interventions
Combined Intervention
Dialogic Reading
Dialogic reading is a shared-reading
intervention designed to promote the
development of oral language skills.
Dialogic reading involves several changes
in the way adults typically read books to
children.
Central to these changes is a shift in
roles. During typical shared-reading, the
adult reads and the child listens...
Dialogic Reading
...in dialogic reading the child learns to
become the storyteller. The adult
assumes the role of an active listener
Asking questions
Adding information
Prompting the child to increase the
sophistication of descriptions of the material
in the picture book
Dialogic Reading
Children's responses to the book are
encouraged through praise and
repetition, and more sophisticated
responses are encouraged by expansions
of the child's utterances and by more
challenging questions from the adult
reading partner.
Dialogic Reading
Studies conducted with children from
lower SES families demonstrate that
teachers, parents, or community
volunteers can produce substantial
positive changes in children's language.
Dialogic Reading
A large scale longitudinal study of the
use of dialogic reading over a year of a
Head Start program for 4-year-olds
showed large effects on oral language
skills at the end of Head Start that
were maintained through the end of
kindergarten.
Phonological Sensitivity Interventions
Most phonological sensitivity
interventions have been conducted with
children at the beginning stages of
learning to read.
A small but growing body of research
suggests that preschool phonological
awareness interventions can increase
childrens skills in this area and improve
the childrens later reading skills.
CAI in Head Start
45 children attending Head Start were
randomly assigned to receive either a CAI
phonological sensitivity intervention or nothing in
addition to the standard Head Start curriculum.
Children in the CAI group received daily 15
minute sessions for about 10 weeks.
All children pre- and posttested on measures of
phonological sensitivity, print awareness, and
oral language.
CAI in Head Start
CAI activities provided instruction and practice
in rhyme, blending, and segmentation of sounds
in words.
CAI program used an adventure game context.
Research assistants worked with the children to
provide instructional and technical support.
Significant Pre- to Posttest Difference Scores for Head Start
CAI Study
Comprehensive Pre-Literacy Intervention
Interventions targeting separate
emergent literacy skills (oral language,
phonological sensitivity) can be effective.
Data suggest, however, that emergent
literacy skills are relatively modular
long-term dialogic reading effects do not
extend to decoding.
phonological processing and print awareness
skills--and not oral language--predict early
decoding.
Comprehensive Pre-Literacy Intervention
Preventative Intervention for Children
At-Risk for Reading Difficulties
Comparison to determine optimal
combinations of emergent literacy
intervention.
Examination of the additive effects of
combined interventions.
Using small group activities.
Comprehensive Pre-Literacy Intervention
Initial Outcomes in Three Emergent Literacy Domains
Summary
Summary
Childrens emergent literacy skills are
strong predictors of how quickly, easily,
and well children will acquire conventional
literacy skills.
Childrens oral language, phonological
processing, and print knowledge skills are
important developmental domains for
reading.
Summary
Childrens emergent literacy skills are
highly stable--indicating that children
who start behind are likely to stay
behind.
Many children from lower SES
backgrounds are at significant risk for
difficulties learning to read because of
their lower level of emergent literacy
skills.
Summary
There are effective interventions for
improving childrens emergent literacy
skills.
Emergent literacy skills are modular. It
is likely that effective intervention will
need to address performance in all three
areas (oral language, phonological
processing, print awareness).
Summary
Educational strategies using these
intervention techniques can be used to
help children at-risk for reading
problems become ready to read -- and
ready to learn.
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