Emergent literacy skills develop from a child's experiences with spoken language in social interactions, written words through storybook reading, and opportunities to interact with print in the environment. These emergent literacy experiences provide a foundation for conventional literacy skills. A congenital visual impairment (that is, blindness…

Several federal mandates have eradicated developmentally appropriate early literacy practices in primary grade classrooms across the country. Studies show that patterns of oral language use are developed extensively during the preschool years and lay a foundation for literacy development. In recent years, high quality pre-kindergarten classrooms…

Evidence-based reform is transforming education at all levels, both in providing effective models for use in schools and in linking policy to effective practice on a broad scale. As early education moves from a concern with effects of preschool versus no preschool to focus on creating and evaluating effective preschool models capable of improving…

With our expertise and experiences in teaching language development and early literacy instruction courses at a teacher education college, we argue that it is imperative to find ways to integrate learning standards with developmentally appropriate play-based methods. We examined what literacy coach candidates found in their classroom observations…

Parent involvement in children's language and literacy development is a continuum. Parents enhance their newborn baby's language and vocabulary growth, whereas with older children parents are involved in school and provide support by engaging in learning activities such as assisting with homework. Parent involvement is an important part of…

If it is true that "new discoveries in neuroscience suggest that school readiness interventions might come too late if they start after the child is three years old", then the infant/toddler field must claim the concept of school readiness. The brain's foundation for all later learning is created in the first three years of life. As many…

The Early Learning Guidelines: Nebraska's Birth to Five Learning and Development Standards (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) is a resource to provide information about young children's learning and development. The Guidelines are intended to assist adults in planning and providing meaningful learning experiences and environments for…

This resource provides parents with widely held expectations for their child's development prior to kindergarten and ways parents can encourage their child's growth. Although a child's growth and development follows a general pattern, all children grow at different rates. Some children will be doing things earlier or later than others. There's no…

Interactive Literacy Activities, or ILAs, broadly refer to activities that facilitate interaction between adults and children for the purpose of promoting literacy and language development. It is essential to make ILAs developmentally and culturally appropriate for children and to use an approach that integrates various activities in order to…

There continues to be a debate whether educators should use brain research to their advantage in the classroom. This debate should not prevent educators from using their new found knowledge toward enhancing their students' learning. By understanding how the brain learns, educators are able to determine what developmental level the child is…

These are typical scenarios of children with hearing loss who are being included increasingly in early childhood settings. Recent federal legislation encourages states to develop programs to screen the hearing of all infants before they leave the hospital, and currently 39 states have adopted newborn infant hearing screening mandates (ASHA 2005).…

Reviews some of the various early childhood program models that include the speech-language pathologist in service delivery, including the McKay Integrated Preschool model, which focuses on developmentally appropriate practices (as outlined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children) and "best practices" (as accepted…

Discusses whether developmental delays can be the unintended consequence of developmentally inappropriate preschool teacher and staff practices. Describes the interplay between language and knowledge in early childhood. Includes a table that specifies the child's ability to take in information from language input through five developmental stages…

Examines the interrelationships between young children's literacy growth and music development. Discusses five ways in which song picture books promote language growth. Suggests early childhood activities and materials for using song picture books as a resource for an integrated, developmentally appropriate curriculum. (Author/KB)

Learning sign language is a multisensory, high-interest, developmentally appropriate activity for young children. Learning to sign improves children's attention, self-esteem, motivation, sensitivity to others, language development, reading and math readiness, behavior management, vocabularies, and retention; and allows for inclusion of special…