Young children’s literacy development in the digital age Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, UK Presentation for ‘Literacy for All’ Conference, Cyprus, September 2012

Supporting children’s literacy development in the digital age: A rationale for action  Many children are immersed in a technology rich environment from birth  Children, thus, interact with multimodal, multimedia texts from a young age and require skills, knowledge and understanding that extend beyond the ability to encode, decode and make meaning with alphabetic print  Integrating work on multimodal, multimedia texts and practices into the early years curriculum can enhance motivation, promote development of specific literacy skills( e.g. letter-sound correspondence) and multimodal skills (e.g. an understanding of transduction), and can raise attainment in literacy  Use of technologies can be beneficial for children with early literacy delays

Word Image Movement/ gesture Sound Multimodal communication

Action required 1. Early years policy and curricula should recognise and embody recent developments in the understanding of literacy in the digital age. 1. Early years provision needs to build on children’s multimodal, multimedia experiences in the home and connect the setting/ home/ community environments. 1. There should be a focus on the creation of assessment practices (criteria and modes)that enable children’s stage of development in these areas to be recognised and built on appropriately. 1. Continuing professional development programmes need to be organised for early childhood practitioners in order to ensure that they are confident in supporting children’s development of multimodal communication skills. 1. Family literacy programmes should support the development of multimodal communication skills.

Literacy Digital literacy Information literacy Media literacy Policy frameworks

Research required:  A large-scale European survey of young children’s engagement in multimedia, multimodal practices in homes and communities and their access to these practices and related texts in early years settings.  Qualitative case studies of the development of multimedia, multimodal practices in early years settings and homes.  Experimental studies that examine the efficacy of specific approaches e.g. the use of ipads/ tablet apps in the production of multimodal texts, or for use with children with early literacy delays.  Studies of the effectiveness of family literacy programmes that include a focus on multimodal texts and practices.

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