From language to literacy

Discuss What do these findings mean? Are certain children "doomed"? How can these findings be applied to your early childhood settings? What factors affect the amount of adult/child communication that occurs in an early childhood setting? What strategies to you use to encourage extensive language interaction between staff and children – or is it an issue? How can you use this information when working with parents?

What we know - a simple summary At 14 months, there is not much variation in children’s language capacities By age 4, there is wide variation with some children having much greater facility with language than others Children who have good language skills at age 5, are likely to have good literacy skills at age 9 In North America, approximately 40% of adults do not have the literacy skills required to read instructions on how to take medicine accurately

Low literacy skills are usually linked with poorer standard of living, more likelihood for involvement in crime, poorer health, etc. What happens in early childhood matters When children begin school behind, the gap just tends to widen Supporting early language and literacy is not rocket science and is not costly Again, experiences in early childhood have a long reach.