Chapter 4: Supporting Language and Literacy Development in Quality Preschools Mary Shelton RDG 692

75% of all children age 4 and 50% of children age 3 attend preschool Varying characteristics include : Length of day/year Age range of kids Teacher qualifications Cost to family Early literacy experiences are directly related to cognitive differences in Kindergarten. Preschool is shown to have an effect on early cognitive development.

Supporting Research: Early Literacy Skills have strong relationship with later literacy skills Language ability at ages 3 and 4 has strong predictive power for literacy skills through high school Brain develops rapidly and is sensitive to experiences which establish literacy skills. Brain is highly susceptible to the absence of skills and this can have a lasting detrimental effect as studnts are unlikely to catch up. Early skill development is the foundation for later conceptual knowledge, ergo a strong need for quality preschool programs.

Effects of Preschool on Language Development High Scope Perry Preschool Study (Swinehart et al., 2005) Chicago Child Parent Center Program (Reynolds 2000) Abecedarian Study (Campbell, Ramey, Pungello, Sparling, & Miller Johnson, 2002) High Quality Preschool has large effects on Literacy Development Teacher qualification and compensation A decrease in intial impact due to compensatory effects of high quality public schools Quality of interventions Not all interventions have been shown to have equal effectiveness

What is High Quality Preschool? Encompasses physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language domains Phonological Awareness Alphabetic Knowledge Print Concepts Writing Oral Language

Includes listening comprehension Receptive and expressive vocabulary Is the foundation for learning

How many do you hear? Kids in Professional families 11 million words a year Kids in Working class families 6 million words a year Kids in low income families 3 million words a year

Oral Language Strategies Meaningful conversations Using complex language and syntax Modeling communication skills Provide definitions and explanations before reading Engaging in interactive readings Allow for multiple opportunities for students to retell or summarize to monitor comprehension

Phonological Awareness Ability to detect and manipulate sounds at syllable, rime and onset, and phoneme levels Clap out syllables Sort by rime and onset Play rhyming games

Alphabetic Knowledge Includes letter and sound identification Believed to be a by- product of other rich literary experiences Should not be done in skill and drill exercises Use magnetic letters Stamps Stencils Students names Look for letters shapes in objects

Concepts of Print Shared Book Experience Use of Big Books Place books all around the classroom Label items in the classroom Teacher models writing for students and writes collaboratively with them

Writing Respond positively to all attempts Ask questions about writing Record students dictation Offer a writing center Offer utensils and paper for writing all around the room

Importance of Play Develop most advanced language skills during play Talk has been shown to relate to later literacy outcomes Use of literacy props increases narrative, emergent reading and writing skills