ANALYZATION OF EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

Julie A. Douglas
LBS 310
Analyzation of Early Language and Literacy Skills
10 Pages
Due: December 15th, 2015
PDF

ANALYZATION OF EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

Analyzation of Early Language and Literacy Skills
While learning early language and literacy skills, children go through many stages as well
as experience and learn different skill sets both in a home setting and in a school setting. In the
very early years of development, children are beginning to gain foundational skills and build on
their literacy skills. Children then learn about literacy and language in a home setting through
experience with family conversations, learning new or rare words, sibling teaching, as well as
reading together with their parents. Finally, children begin to develop skills for language and
literacy in a school setting. They build on skills like phonological awareness, book acting and
storytelling, research and writing, and more. Knowing what stages children should be going
through, depending on their age, and having the proper resources, parents and teachers can have
a very powerful and positive impact on how well a child is able to pick up and build upon those
early skill sets. After learning about these skills, and how they are developed in a child, I was
able to observe and document them being exhibited in both pictures and videos in the children I
work with. While I was babysitting and working with children in their homes, I was able to
observe and document children who were building their skills at home. During my time as a
tutor, I watched and documented children who were developing language and literacy skills in a
school setting. My collection of digital artifacts are a great tool for analyzing and learning about
the multiple language and literacy skills children learn at home, and at school. They are a great
way to see how the concepts that can be read in textbooks and through lecture can be seen in
children who are really experiencing them. Using the digital artifacts I have collected, I will
analyze them to demonstrate those ideas and concepts I have learned during the course of my
early language and literacy class, and how those ideas and concepts can be seen in real life
instances.

ANALYZATION OF EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

During the earliest stages of language and literacy development, children start to create a
foundation for what they will later learn. The language foundation starts with things such as
phonemic and phonological awareness, print concepts, word recognition, and fluency. These
skills are essential to all other skills that a child will learn later on in regards to their language. In
her article, Language and Literacy Development in the Early Years: Foundational Skills that
Support Emergent Readers, Carmen Brown elaborates on the foundational skills children begin
to learn at this stage, the skills and behaviors that develop early serve as the base for later
competence and proficiency. They are the building blocks that children learn to utilize to develop
subsequent, higher-level skills to become proficient readers (2014, pg. 35). I was able to
observe these skills being developed many times while I was collecting data for this assignment.
This is because I mostly work with children who range in age from one to seven years old. One
instance where both print concepts and word recognition can be seen, is in a video I took titled
Different Reading Skills and Abilities. The children seen in this video are two boys that I nanny,
Kaito, age six, and his younger brother Shota, age three. During car rides, I usually hand them a
book to look at and read. Kaito is a beginning reader, and this is evident in the video. He exhibits
word recognition with some sight words in the book, but he still needs to sound out others that he
has never seen before. He demonstrates an understanding of print by holding the book properly,
and understanding that the words on the page are a way to describe the pictures above them.
Shota, on the other hand, is not interested yet in trying to read the words, as he is more interested
in the pictures and listening to Kaito read. In the video, Shota excitedly points out animals he
knows, and the fact that the book is small. Although he only shows some of the foundational
skills needed for reading (eg. Holding the book, deciphering the pictures), this exposure to books

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and interaction while he hears his older brother reading, will help him later on when he is ready
to read.
As a tutor for students in grades kindergarten through second, I work with children who
are struggling readers and language learners. During my time with them, I work on strengthening
all of their foundational skills. My lessons first start with phonemic and phonological awareness,
followed by fluency, and lastly prints concepts (Brown, 2014). A typical lesson starts with
learning letter names and sounds, followed by practice with blending and segmenting words,
next we work on phonics building, exposure to a few fluency words, and lastly reading a book
together that demonstrates some of the concepts we learned during the lesson. In my digital
artifact titled, Kindergarten Students Learning to Write, the children can be seen developing their
writing skills, print concepts, as well as both their phonemic and phonological awareness. During
this part of the lesson, I was reviewing the letters we had learned in the first portion of the lesson.
I asked the children, Please write the letter that makes the nnnn sound. What letter makes the
nnnn sound? or Please write the letter d. What sound does d make? This is a great way
for me to asses where my students are struggling, and determines what my next lesson should
look like. For instance, during this particular lesson, I noticed that one child was able to quickly
answer the questions in which I gave a sound, and asked for the corresponding letter. However,
that same student struggled with the questions in which a letter name was given, and I asked for
the sound. This told me that my student is proficient in her ability to recognize sounds and their
corresponding letters, but not proficient in her ability to match letters to their sounds. To help
this child, I will need to expose them first to the letter name, and then follow with the sound
during my lessons. This should hopefully help them to strengthen their alphabetic principle
skills.

ANALYZATION OF EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

In another example of early language and literacy development, Daniel, a four year old
boy whom I was visiting during a trip to an orphanage in Mexico, is learning to sound out and
read his name. The digital artifact, Child Learns to Write his Name, was collected while I
observed a volunteer helping Daniel who wanted to write his name, but he had no idea how. He
clearly had alphabet knowledge as we was able to write the letters, but lacked the ability to
connect letters to their sounds. The volunteer assisted him with sounding out each individual
letter. Daniel wanted to write his name on a project he created, he knew that writing his name
would tell others that that project was done by him and belonged to him. When children write to
convey meaning, they are using their language, their physical ability to hold a crayon or pencil,
and the cognitive understanding that the marks they make on the page are symbols that represent
a meaning that can be shared (2010, pg. 109).
Exposure to a multitude of purposeful learning experiences at home, during a childs
early stages of learning, has a huge impact on how efficient they will be in their language and
literacy skills, as well as their level of readiness when entering kindergarten. In a study done by
Dickinson and Tabors in 2001 about the impact of home language and literacy, it was revealed
that the activities that family members engaged in while reading books and playing, as well as
the types of language and the level of vocabulary used during reading, play time, and mealtime
talks, were all essential components which helped children develop a particular set of language
and literacy skills that are important for success in kindergarten (pg. 135). As a nanny, I have had
the opportunity to see plenty examples of children engaging in meaningful language and literacy
activities, as well as be the facilitator of engaging children in these activities. Two of the digital
artifacts that I collected were of Sydney, a spunky five year old girl I babysit on occasion,
engaging in home literacy and language activities. The daughter of a doctor, Sydney is exposed

ANALYZATION OF EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

to many books that are well beyond her reading capabilities and age level. In addition, as a
specific request from her mother, Sydney is introduced to a variety of rare words that a child her
age normally might not be. In the two artifacts, Sydney Finds a Worm and Learning the Word,
purchases, I provided Sydney with two new rare words, one during free play and another
during meal time. In the first example, Sydney is playing in her backyard when she notices there
is worm on the cement. She instinctively picks up the worm and returns him to a muddy area.
While Sydney is doing this, I explain to her that it is very nice of her to return the worm to his
natural habitat. Confused, Sydney asks what a habitat is, and I explain it to her. Later, Sydney
used the word habitat while describing a bird that was flying into a tree, Look Julie! That bird
went to his habitat! In the second artifact I collected, Sydney engages in conversation with me
during lunch about the items she had recently bought. I expose Sydney to the rare word,
purchases, and give her an example. At the end of the video, I ask Sydney if she knows what
purchases means, and she is able to correctly define it. These introductions are considered
informative because I have provided Sydney with enough information and examples of the
words so that she can begin to develop and understanding of what the words mean and how she
can use them in her day-to-day conversations ( Dickinson & Tabors, 2001).
As we earlier discussed, parents and caregivers play a very important role in the success
of a childs development of their early language and literacy skills. In one of my artifacts titled,
A Mother Reads to Her Boys, I observed a crucial activity children must engage in to develop
such skills. Ayako, the mother of the three boys I nanny, Kaito, age six, Shota, age three, and
Akira, age twenty-two months, sits down to read a book to her children like she does every night
after bath. Ayako is a fifth grade, special education teacher. As a teacher, she not only
understands the importance of reading at home, but also the importance in how and what is read.

ANALYZATION OF EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

She reads books of different varieties, uses gestures and modelled reading, as well as engages the
children in non-immediate talk about the book. All of these aspects to meaningful parent and
child reading, are providing Ayakos children with essential foundational skills they will need to
later be successful readers. the more often this type of talk [complex language] is used, with a
wide variety of books, the more likely it is that children will be prepared for some of the
challenges of early literacy (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001). In addition to parents and caregivers,
siblings play a huge role in one anothers education. This can be seen in my digital artifact titled,
Big Brother, Kaito, Teaches Younger Brother, Shota. While getting ready to leave for school,
Kaito plays a game of hide-and-seek with Shota. He asks him to find some numbers, which
Shota does, just not the exact ones Kaito was looking at. To help him out, Kaito describes where
the numbers are located, on a brick wall. Understanding that Shota might not understand what a
brick is, Kaito goes into explaining what a brick is and gives an example. This is a great example
of sibling teaching. older siblings know a great deal about literacy and can share their
knowledge with their younger sibs in ways that are instructive, sensitive, and enjoyable (Barone
& Morrow, 2003). Kaito naturally made learning fun by engaging in a game, as well as made the
lesson instructive and sensitive to Shotas level of understanding.
In the next stage of early language and literacy learning, childrens environment and
lessons in their classroom setting begin to build onto the foundational skills they have learned at
home. It is in this stage where children build their phonological awareness and begin to explore
books through book acting, storytelling, expository texts, as well as research and writing. In my
first digital artifact which demonstrates these concepts, Writing About the Rainforest, the
children in a second grade class I tutor participate in an early form of research and writing.
Before writing a short research paragraph about their findings, the children read three different

ANALYZATION OF EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

books about the rainforest. They then were asked to write a paragraph about five new things they
learned about the rainforest while utilizing all three books as references while writing to help
with spelling and recalling facts. Through my observation, I saw that these children were able to
clearly state ideas in complete sentences, and write them in a paragraph that was coherent and
cohesive. This is an example of expository writing. The goal of exposing children to this type of
writing I so that the students are able to, see expository writing as a natural extension of their
learning that builds their knowledge while creating a record of that they learn (Barone &
Morrow, 2003).
In my next example, The Mermaid and Her Prince, Madeline, a five year old girl I
babysit, tells a story about a picture she has drawn. She shows an understanding for storys with
a problem-solution storyline. With problem-solution, students must thoroughly understand and
explain the problem before proposing a logical and plausible solution (Barone & Morrow,
2003). Madeline describes a prince who is in search of mermaid for a princess, and after finding
the right one, they are left with the problem of where they will live. This type of storytelling can
be considered a mild form of thematic fantasy play. Preschoolers and kindergarteners that are
given many chances to engage in thematic fantasy play, have better vocabularies, use more
complex language, and have better story comprehension than children who only draw or talk
about stories (Barone & Morrow, 2003). Madelines storytelling tells me that she is well on her
way to being a reader who can comprehend and analyze text.
Lastly, my digital artifact, Learning Letter Recognition, a group of kindergarten students
I tutor practice their phonological awareness skills and alphabetic knowledge. We are playing a
game I call letter hide-and-seek. Lowercase letters are spread out on the table. I hold up an
uppercase letter and ask the children what letter it is, and they respond. Next, I ask the children

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to find the matching lowercase letter, and they hand me the match. Lastly, I ask the children to
tell me what sound that letter makes, and give me an example of a word that starts with that
sound. The matching and letter sound component of this game helps the children build their
alphabetic knowledge, while the examples builds their phonological awareness. I believe this
method of teaching is great for children building their foundational skills because it teaches them
that letters have sounds, those sounds make words, and that those words have meaning and can
be used as a tool for understanding. Additionally, Comparing and contrasting several letter at a
time is the best approach to alphabet instruction (Barone & Morrow, 2003).
In conclusion, using the digital artifacts I collected, I was able to analyze them to
demonstrate the ideas and concepts I have learned during the course of my early language and
literacy class, as well as how those ideas and concepts could be seen in real life instances.
Making crucial connections between home and school literacy and language learning, I provided
examples on how important it is that children have the full support of learning these skills from
an early age. In addition, I discussed how each of these modules and stages of development, are
building blocks for one another, without a strong base, children are not able to build upon their
experiences and lessons. By connecting the concepts and ideas found in different readings, I was
able to not only build upon these ideas and concepts, but it also helped instill a better
understanding of them. The knowledge I have gained through this research on early language
and literacy skills will not only impact my current role as a tutor and a nanny, but also my future
teaching methods and the ways in which, and when, I introduce my own children to language
and literacy. I feel I have a much better understanding of how and when children develop their
language and literacy skills, as well as ways in which I can scaffold them and help encourage a
stronger knowledge of these skills.

ANALYZATION OF EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS

References
Barone, D., & Morrow, L. (Eds.). (2003). Literacy and young children: Research-based
practices. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Brown, C. (2014). Language and literacy development in the early years: Foundational skills
that support emergent readers. 24, 35-49.
Dickinson, D., & Tabors, P. (Eds.). (2001). Beginning literacy with language: Young children
learning at home and school. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
Ong, F., & Soto, D. (2010). Language and literacy. In California preschool curriculum
(Vol. 1, pp. 97-109). Sacramento, CA: California Department of Education.

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