Children's conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers is an important aspect of their cognitive development. Children use notations as representations that have a communicative value and begin to learn about formal differences between writing words and writing numbers at an early age before the onset of formal schooling. The aim of the…

Preschool teachers' literacy-related beliefs and literacy knowledge relate to their educational practices and preschoolers' literacy skills. In this light, we explored how preschool teachers' beliefs regarding early literacy and its promotion predict their knowledge, reflected in how they evaluate three young children's writing products and their…

The present study explored the developmental trend of orthographic awareness in Chinese-speaking preschoolers. A total of 184 children between 3 and 5 years of age participated in the study. Two developmental patterns of orthographic awareness were obtained. One pattern was dependent on a traditional Chinese orthographic hierarchy, with a sequence…

The relationship between letter and numeral identification is reviewed to determine whether early identification of these symbols impact upon both literacy and numeracy development. Numerals and letters share similar perceptual properties such as geometric features and arbitrary labels. Through early socio-cultural experiences with surrounding…

Alphabet knowledge is consistently recognized as the strongest, most durable predictor of later literacy achievement. Recent research offers practical implications for increased effectiveness of teaching alphabet knowledge to young children. In this article, we outline Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge instruction (EAK), a method of practical…

In Kannada, visual features are arranged in blocks called "akshara," making this a visually more complex writing system than typical alphabetic orthographies. Akshara knowledge was assessed concurrently and 8 months later in 113 children in the first years of reading instruction (aged 4-7 years). Mixed effects logistic regression models…

In this study, we used Rasch model analyses to examine (1) the unidimensionality of the alphabet knowledge construct and (2) the relative difficulty of different alphabet knowledge tasks (uppercase letter recognition, names, and sounds, and lowercase letter names) within a sample of preschoolers (n=335). Rasch analysis showed that the four…

This study examined the effects of a 10 week invented writing program with five-year-old preschoolers (mean age 5.7 years) on their immediate post intervention literacy skills and also the facilitative effects of the intervention on the subsequent learning to read during the first 6 months of schooling. The study included 105 children (54 girls)…

How can it be explained that early literacy and numeracy share variance? We specifically tested whether the correlation between four early literacy skills (rhyming, letter knowledge, emergent writing, and orthographic knowledge) and simple sums (non-symbolic and story condition) reduced after taking into account preschool attention control,…

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether there are systematic differences in literacy skills among children from less-advantaged households, using latent profile analysis. Early reading skills were measured using the Early Arithmetic, Reading, and Learning Indicators (EARLI; DiPerna, Morgan, & Lei, 2007) literacy tasks.…

The genetic factor structure of a range of learning measures was explored in twin children, recruited in preschool and followed to Grade 2 ("N"?=?2,084). Measures of orthographic learning and word reading were included in the analyses to determine how these patterned with the learning processes. An exploratory factor analysis of the…

Preschool-aged children (n = 58) were randomly assigned to receive small group instruction in letter names and/or sounds or numbers (treated control). Alphabet instruction followed one of two approaches currently utilized in early childhood classrooms: combined letter name and sound instruction or letter sound only instruction. Thirty-four 15…

The present paper reports some observations on pre-school children's spontaneous as well as adult-supported spelling behaviour and makes comparisons between aspects of these early literacy activities and some features of spellings from mostly twelfth- to fourteenth-century Norwegian runic inscriptions. The runic inscriptions originate from a…

This study compared the rates of different types of joint book reading behaviors of parents of preschool children with and without language impairments using two different text genres. Participants included 72 preschool children between the ages of 51 and 70 months. Fifty-five children were typically developing and 17 were diagnosed with language…

The purpose of this applied dissertation was to examine the effects of a preschool emergent literacy program on young African American children from a low socioeconomic background. The preschool is located in an urban setting in North Carolina. All students participating in this study were identified as at-risk for school failure. The behavior and…