Literacy Instruction in Canadian Child Care Centers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe literacy instruction in child care centers, examine aspects of child care center quality that may predict such instruction, and provide a limited analysis of whether literacy instruction impacts children's concurrent pre-academic functioning. Staff and children in 103 classrooms serving preschool-age children from 64 child care centers in a major Canadian city participated in the study. Literacy instruction was captured using a series of 20-second, time-sampled observations over the course of one morning. The following types of literacy instruction were examined and are reported as a percentage of the snapshots in which they were observed: Reading Aloud, 2.8%; Word Instruction, 1.2%; Letter Identification, 1.2%; Printing/Writing, 0.7%; Symbol Recognition, 0.5%; Letter-Word Sounds, 0.2%; and Word Segmentation, 0%. Hierarchical linear models revealed that literacy instruction is a staff, rather than classroom or center, characteristic. Overall, literacy instruction occurred infrequently in child care classrooms. Indicators of quality were not found to drive literacy instruction, and literacy instruction did not predict greater verbal intelligence scores among children. Implications for research and practice are discussed.