Literacy Skills In Preschool Children Research Articles

COULD EARLY LITERACY SCORES AFFECT THE DIAGNOSIS OF SPECIFIC LEARNING DISORDER IN CHILDREN AT RISK

Background and objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the early literacy skills of pre-school children at risk of Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) by comparing Test of Early Literacy (TEL) scores between three groups including the siblings of children with SLD, children with speech disorder and healthy controls. Methods: Children between the age of 60-72 months were recruited. The total number of participants was 81. A sociodemographic Data Form, the Colored Progressive Matrices Test (CPM) and TEL were applied to all participants. Results: A significant difference was determined between the performance of the three groups in all sub-tests of TEL. The children with speech disorder displayed the worst score in all sub-tests except vocabulary; this was followed by the siblings of children with SLD while the control group displayed the highest scores. Conclusion: The current study is the first investigating the TEL scores of pre-school children using a transparent language like Turkish at risk of SLD. The risky group with a language disorder showed the worst performance in almost all subtests examined. It is critical to start interventions early, assuming that this group will be at highest risk in the future.

Parental support of emergent literacy in the final preschool year in Austria during COVID-19-induced lockdowns

ABSTRACT The support of emergent literacy skills in preschool children has been considered highly important for the development of children’s competencies and their academic success in school. In addition to parents, preschool teachers are expected to support children’s emergent literacy skills with educational activities; this is specifically true for underperforming children. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding lockdowns, closures, and emergency care for preschool children impeded the development of children’s emergent literacy skills. As a result, parental support for children’s emergent literacy skills has come under scrutiny. With reference to Austria, the study aims to gain insights into parents’ self-reported perspectives on their implementation of behaviours to support emergent literacy skills and their justifications for their support or non-support during COVID-19-induced lockdowns through nine semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that the parents interviewed indicated to support emergent literacy actively, passively, or hardly at all. Justifications referred to children’s interest but also to reservations about whether preschool is too early to focus on literacy emergence. The study may provide hints for pedagogical work in preschools in post-COVID-19 times.

Investigation of early literacy skills of preschool children with hearing loss

BackgroundEarly literacy development is critical for children with hearing loss to develop literacy skills in the years to come. The aim of this study is to compare the early literacy skills of 60–72 months’ children with hearing loss to the results of children with normal hearing.MethodsA total of 40 children (20 children with hearing aid (HA) and 20 children with normal hearing (NH) were evaluated in the study. Receptive and expressive language was assessed by Test of Early Language Development (TELD-3) and Early Literacy Test (EROT) was applied to assess the early literacy skills of all children in the study.ResultsThe receptive and expressive language results of the hearing-impaired group were significantly lower than those of normal hearing. Moreover, in EROT when a general analysis is made with main test titles such as, the vocabulary knowledge, letter knowledge, the listening comprehension, results showed that there was a significant difference between the HA and NH groups.ConclusionsThis study highlights the importance of supporting early literacy skills, which are prerequisite skills for reading and writing skills, in children who receive both mainstreaming education and special education in the risk group and/or continue their education in kindergarten.

A Teacher‑Implemented Shared‑Reading Intervention to Promote Early Literacy Skills of Preschoolers Children in Turkey

This study was conducted in a preschool in Hatay, Turkey. The effect of the shared-reading method on the early literacy skills of preschool children is examined. Four preschool classes (two experiments and two control) participated in the research. Tools included the intervention program, intervention checklists, interviews, and early literacy skills tests. Pretests were applied to both groups. The first took a 12-week intervention. Post-tests revealed that children in the experimental showed significant improvement and improvement in early literacy skills compared to baseline performance results. The findings provide educators with an understanding of ways to foster the development of early literacy skills at the preschool level.

The Effect of a Dialogic Reading Program on the Early Literacy Skills of Children in Preschool Period

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of an dialogic reading program on expressive language vocabulary and category naming skills, which are among the early literacy skills of preschool children. The research was designed in the quasi-experimental model, which is one of the quantitative research methods. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 30 children, 15 girls and 15 boys, between 64 and 72 months of age, who attended a kindergarten in Konya. Fifteen of the children were in the control group and 15 of them were in the experimental group. In addition to the existing preschool education program applied to the groups within the scope of the study, a 10-week dialogic reading program was applied to the experimental group. In the research, "Demographic Information Form" was used as the data collection tool and "Early Literacy Test (ELT)" was used as pre-test and post-test. According to the results of the research, the post-test scores of all groups' expressive language vocabulary and category naming skills increased significantly compared to the pre-test scores. However, the post-test scores of expressive language vocabulary and category naming skills of the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. Accordingly, it was concluded that the dialogic reading program applied significantly increased the expressive language vocabulary and category naming skills, which are among the early literacy skills.

“Let’s Read Together”: A Parent-Focused Intervention on Dialogic Book Reading to Improve Early Language and Literacy Skills in Preschool Children

Many children are at risk for reading difficulties because of inadequate emergent literacy skills. It is widely accepted that development of emergent literacy skills is strictly related to children’s early literacy experiences at home and school. Dialogic reading is an evidence-based intervention to promote the language skills of preschool children. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a parent-focused dialogic book reading intervention that aimed to foster the early language and literacy skills of pre-school children. A sample of 40 Italian preschoolers (Mage = 62.9 months, SD = 6.3) and their parents were divided into three groups: treatment group (n = 12); information group (n = 12) and control group (n = 16). The efficacy of the intervention for oral language skills was examined by analyzing the improvements from pre- to post-intervention in children’s oral language outcomes, through ad hoc and standardized tasks; specifically, by measuring proximal and distal abilities. Additionally, we analyzed the intervention effects on parent–child interaction and dialogic behaviors during shared book reading. Results suggest that a relatively brief intervention (6 weeks) using dialogic book reading strategies can lead to sustained improvements in early language and literacy skills in preschoolers (both proximal and distal) and in parent dialogic behaviors during shared book reading.

Associations between executive function and early math and literacy skills in preschool children

The current study directly compared the magnitude of associations between executive function (EF) and math versus literacy and investigated whether they differed by age within the preschool years. Participants were 92 typically developing, preschool children in the United States (Mage=58.53 months; 47.8% Female; 58.7% White; 29.3% Non-White). Children completed a developmentally sensitive battery of direct EF assessments, math and literacy achievement tests, and IQ tests. Results showed an EF Composite was associated with math, but not literacy, after controlling for age, verbal and nonverbal IQ, and socioeconomic status. Extending prior work to a younger age, we examined whether the association between EF and academic achievement was moderated by age but found no significant interactions. These findings support the link between EF and math before kindergarten and indicate a similar magnitude of associations in younger and older preschoolers.

Talk—An Intervention Programme for Enhancing Early Literacy Skills in Preschool Children: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT Many studies have reported that early interventions on language and early literacy skills are important for preventing later reading difficulties at primary school. The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of a 12-week intervention programme focused on enhancing pre-schoolers’ language and early literacy skills. Two groups of children (ages 5-6) were involved in the study: the “Talk-group”, who participated in the intervention programme, and the “Play-group”, who followed the standard preschool curriculum. The children's early literacy skills were tested in two sessions six months apart, at the beginning and at the end of the last year of preschool. Data analysis showed that children achieved significantly higher scores in nonword repetition and lexical comprehension at the second assessment; however, only the children in the Talk-group produced significantly higher phonological awareness scores at the second session, i.e. after the intervention. Additional tests showed that the intervention programme was effective only in the case of more basic phonological awareness skills. The programme's potential for supporting early literacy development in preschool and for preventing long-term difficulties in reading are discussed.

Comics and Children’s Literacy Skills: A Focus Group Analysis from Preschool Teacher’s Perspective

Comics is amongst the educational learning tools which offer children an opportunity to understand and interpret the narrative by themselves. Like most studies conclude, through the characteristics and features that comics provide to the reader, it offers many advantages on how literacy skills develop for children's development, as well as specific skills associated with recognizing reading skills and value-added benefit.This study was discussed extensively on how comics could improve the literacy skills of children particularly for pre-school children's reading comprehension. By conducting focus group discussion, data were qualitatively collected from six pre-school teachers who used comics for their learning and teaching sessions as their pedagogical approach and aids. The finding found that comics showed considerable contribution to enhance pre-school children's literacy skills not only for reading comprehension, but also provided added value that comics needed to improve children's critical thinking. Eventually, comics will be adapted to improve the learning of children in the classroom, and even the issue of implementation would be discussed together as well. The research indicates that teachers are urged to use comics in classroom learning sessions as one of the alternative teaching materials in teaching young children.

The Effects of Environmental Writing Intervention on Early Literacy Skills of Pre-School Children at Risk

The Effects of Environmental Writing Intervention on Early Literacy Skills of Pre-School Children at Risk

Coupling Articulatory Placement Strategies With Phonemic Awareness Instruction to Support Emergent Literacy Skills in Preschool Children: A Collaborative Approach.

Purpose The merits of collaboration between teachers and speech-language pathologists have been extensively highlighted in literature on multitiered educational frameworks. Studies also illustrate the link between articulation, phonemic awareness, and, ultimately, reading skills. This article describes the impact of an intervention targeting articulation and phonemic awareness provided collaboratively to preschool children to enhance emergent literacy skills with the long-term goal of preventing later reading difficulties. Method This pilot study involved a bidirectional collaboration between a speech-language pathologist and a teacher by providing articulatory placement strategies to link accurate speech production with early phonemic awareness activities in the context of a private early childhood center. Seventeen children (N = 17) participated in the study, with ages ranging from 55 to 65 months. Results The results indicated significant differences in phonemic segmentation as well as reading phonemically spelled words and nonwords when comparing the baseline to the collaboratively based articulatory placement plus phonemic awareness intervention. Significant differences were also seen when comparing the traditional literacy program to the collaboratively based articulatory placement plus phonemic awareness intervention. Conclusions The results suggest there may be a benefit to using articulatory placement strategies with phonemic awareness activities directly in the preschool classroom in collaboration with teachers. This pilot study adds to the literature by transferring principles demonstrated as effective for individual children in the research laboratory to application with a whole class in an authentic setting.

Predictive Role of Classroom Management in Literacy Development in Preschool Children at Risk of EBD

The purpose of this study was to better understand the association between teachers’ incoming classroom management skills and end-of-year literacy skills of preschool children with or at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders. Furthermore, we explored the contribution of students’ incoming engagement and communication skills to end-of-year literacy skills. A series of multilevel models revealed that teacher classroom management predicted end-of-year letter sound fluency, but not letter naming fluency, after controlling for other factors. We conclude with a discussion of these preliminary findings and provide suggestions for future research and practice in early intervention settings.

Évaluation des compétences en littératie chez les enfants français de 4-5 ans

Introduction : Très tôt, les enfants d’âge préscolaire développent des capacités langagières dont certaines sont fortement prédictives de l’apprentissage de la lecture. But de l’étude : Cette recherche vise à utiliser un outil court pour évaluer les compétences en littératie. Elle a été réalisée auprès d’enfants de 4-5 ans ( n = 14 820) scolarisés dans des écoles maternelles publiques (réseau d’éducation prioritaire [REP] et non-REP) et privées en France. L’évaluation a porté sur trois domaines : la connaissance des lettres, les habiletés phonologiques et le vocabulaire, avec un nombre limité d’items. Résultats : Les enfants scolarisés en REP ont des scores significativement plus faibles que les enfants scolarisés dans des écoles hors REP. Aucune différence significative n’est relevée entre les scores des enfants scolarisés dans les écoles privées et les écoles publiques hors REP. Un impact significatif du sexe et de l’âge est observé – le premier en faveur des filles et le second en faveur des enfants plus âgés –, celui du sexe s’estompant chez les enfants plus âgés. Enfin, nous avons examiné la distribution des performances dans les trois domaines chez les enfants ayant obtenu les scores les plus faibles. Conclusions : L’utilisation d’un outil court de repérage des habiletés en littératie précoce permet d’examiner directement chez de jeunes enfants les compétences liées à l’apprentissage de la lecture. C’est aussi une occasion de définir et de coordonner des actions préventives pour réduire les difficultés d’apprentissage de la lecture.

Analyzing Motor Development and Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschool Children

Children start to gain basic literacy skills during preschool that they will constantly be depended on for their academic activities in primary school. Through learning shoulder girdle strength, fine motor skills, and eye-hand coordination, the foundation of motor skills is developed. Examining the effects of motor skills on emergent literacy skills could provide helpful information on the associations among motor and, reading and writing development. The purpose of this study was to analyze 5 years old children’s motor development and emergent literacy skills. The sample of the study consisted of 160 preschool children from main district of Istanbul. Dumans TMB scale and OYHB scale was used for data collection purposes. Results showed that majority of the preschool children (68%) participated in the study had insufficient level of emergent literacy skills. This group’s motor development score was also significantly lower than instructional group. Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a positive and medium level correlation between the scores of motor development and emergent literacy in both groups. It has been suggested that preschool children’s motor skills should be taken into account for their emergent literacy skills development.

Interactive Reading to Improve Language and Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschool Children from Low Socioeconomic and Language-Minority Backgrounds

Children with low socioeconomic status and language-minority backgrounds generally have weak precursory skills (language and emergent literacy) for learning written language. These skills can be stimulated through interactive reading sessions. Our innovative study for French-speaking Belgium aimed to evaluate the effects of an interactive reading intervention in kindergarten classes, including children with a low socioeconomic status and a language-minority background. The convenience sample consisted of eight schools with differentiated teaching in Brussels city-center. The treatment group, which benefits from interactive reading sessions, include 11 classes (N = 194) and the control group was comprised of eight classes (N = 91). The teachers of the treatment group worked with their class during 30 sessions of interactive reading (3 sessions/week). Pre and post-intervention language and emergent literacy measures were conducted. Children from the treatment group evolved significantly better in postintervention for language (vocabulary, morphosyntax) and emergent literacy skills (print awareness, letter knowledge and phonological awareness), compared to the control group. The implications for kindergarten curricula are discussed.

Investigation of Early Literacy Skills in Preschool Children With Deaf and Hard of Hearing

In this study, it is aimed to compare the early literacy skills of children with cochlear implants with 60-72 months of preschool and / or special education to the results of children with normal hearing. For this purpose, the following questions were sought. In this study, “Demographic Form” containing the general information of volunteer families and children was included in the study and Early Literacy Test-EROT was applied to evaluate the early literacy skills of children. As a result, word knowledge between two groups, receptive and expressive language, general naming, knowledge of function scores were statistically different; in the phonological awareness sub-tests, the difference between separating the word into syllable, combining syllables, eliminating the first sound of words results with cochlear implants were statistically significant between two groups. However, there was no statistically significant difference between groups in terms of rhyme awareness, matching the first sound of words, matching the last sound of words, separating the sentence into words, eliminating the last voice of words and total phonological awareness scores; moreover, it was found that CI users had lower scores in the knowledge of letter, listening comprehension subtests and EROT total scores, and the difference between the groups was significant.

The relationship of teacher ratings of executive functions to emergent literacy in Head Start

The purpose of this study was to investigate the concurrent relationships between selected teacher-rated executive function (EF) and a comprehensive array of emergent literacy skills in preschool children after adjusting for targeted covariates including at-risk status. The sample comprised 114 three-year-olds who were attending Head Start preschool. The teacher-completed Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool was used to generate three predictor variables: Inhibitory Self-Control, Flexibility, and Emergent Metacognition. The emergent literacy outcomes included the Teacher Ratings of Oral Language and Literacy Reading, Writing, and Language scales, Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale 5 Vocabulary Subtest, Test of Early Reading-3 Convention Subtest, and Print Knowledge and Phonological Awareness subtests from the Test of Preschool Early Literacy. Findings revealed that after controlling for selected covariates (age, gender, classroom) and at-risk status, when the three EF indices were included in the model the amount of variance significantly increased for all of the emergent literacy outcomes, with the total variance accounted for ranging from 32% (Phonological Awareness) to 59% (pre-Writing). Emergent Metacognition was a significant predictor for nearly every outcome except Phonological Awareness and Reading Conventions; Flexibility and Inhibitory Self-Control were significant predictors of Language. Significant interactions were present for at-risk status and teacher ratings of both Flexibility and Inhibitory on TERA-3 Conventions, but these findings appeared to be affected more by the not at-risk group than the at-risk group. Results reinforce the potential added importance of teacher ratings of EF, particularly with respect to the integrity of early developing EF, in the prediction of emergent literacy skills in young preschool children.

Effects of Read It Again! In Early Childhood Special Education Classrooms as Compared to Regular Shared Book Reading

Read It Again! PreK (RIA) is a whole-class, teacher-implemented intervention that embeds explicit language and literacy instruction within the context of shared book reading and has prior evidence of supporting the language and literacy skills of preschool children. We conducted a conceptual replication to test its efficacy when implemented in early childhood special education classrooms relative to regular shared book reading. The randomized controlled trial involved 109 teachers and 726 children (341 with disabilities and 385 peers). Compared to the rigorous counterfactual condition, RIA significantly increased teachers’ provision of explicit instruction targeting phonological awareness, print knowledge, narrative, and vocabulary during shared book readings but had limited impact on children’s language and literacy skills. Findings underscore the need to conduct replication studies to identify interventions that realize effects for specific populations of interest, such as children with disabilities served in early childhood special education classrooms.

Development of a Brief Screening Tool for Early Literacy Skills in Preschool Children

BackgroundPreschool children develop early literacy skills (ELS) needed for reading acquisition. Screening for delayed ELS could trigger interventions to prevent reading problems. ObjectiveTo develop a brief screening test for ELS delays, the Early Literacy Skills Assessment Tool (ELSAT). MethodsThis study included 4-year-old, typically developing, English language–predominant children attending preschool. The ELSAT comprised 63 items relating to 3 main ELS domains and was piloted with 21 children. After we excluded items that were nondiscriminatory, 57 items remained and were administered to 96 children. Items were compared with reference measures of ELS (Get Ready to Read–Revised), and language (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4 and Phonological Awareness from the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing-2). Within-domain reliability was calculated for each of the 3 ELS domains and item correlations between all ELSAT items and the reference measures were calculated. ResultsA final set of 10 items was retained that represented all 3 ELS domains and that maximized correlations with reference measures. Cronbach alpha for the refined 10-item ELSAT was 0.868; correlations between individual items and a composite of the reference measures ranged from 0.409 to 0.617 (all Ps < .01). In a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, a cut-off score of ≤5 predicted a below-average score for any of the reference measures with sensitivity of 90%, specificity of 71.4%, and area under the curve of 0.872. ConclusionsThe 10-item ELSAT shows strong psychometric properties and with further validation may prove valuable in screening preschool children for ELS delays.

Executive function in Chilean preschool children: Do short-term memory, working memory, and response inhibition contribute differentially to early academic skills?

A large body of literature demonstrates that different cognitive components related to executive function (EF), such as short-term memory, working memory, and response inhibition, are linked to early academic skills in preschool children. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the unique contributions of these components to distinctive early numeracy and literacy skills in preschool children. Moreover, most studies have not considered the covariance between these early academic skills in preschool-aged children. The present study examined whether there are differential contributions of visual–spatial and verbal short-term memory, working memory, and response inhibition to specific early numeracy and literacy skills in preschool-aged children, taking into account the covariance among these outcomes. Several seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) analyses were conducted with 419 Chilean preschool-aged children (M = 53.9 months; SD = 4.22). The results show that both response inhibition and verbal short-term memory uniquely predicted all academic outcomes; working memory predicted all early academic skills (with the exception of verbal counting); and visual–spatial short-term memory predicted all numeracy skills and receptive vocabulary. When comparing the marginal effects of the EFs on the outcomes, response inhibition more strongly predicted applied problems than did working memory. Both visual–spatial short-term memory and response inhibition had a greater effect on explaining applied problems, compared to early decoding skills. Implications for teachers and interventions are discussed.