Outcomes of an Emergent Literacy Intervention in Head Start Homes and Classrooms

Abstract

Many researchers have found an association between children's language ability in preschool and their later school achievement. Children who have relatively poor language skills in preschool often have difficulty learning how to read and often experience academic failure later in school. According to the 1991 Carnegie Foundation report, 35% of children in the United States enter kindergarten lacking the language and emergent literacy skills necessary for school success. At the Stony Brook Reading and Language Project, we have been developing a shared book reading program aimed at helping children in Head Start develop these skills necessary to achieve in school. In our reading program we work with Head Start teachers and parents to show them ways of reading with their children that will help prepare the children better academically and motivate them for beginning school