Discusses how storytelling can be used as an effective way of developing literacy for preschool children who are deaf or hard of hearing. A sample lesson illustrates how themes from children's books can lead to a myriad of topics touching a variety of content areas. (CR)

Describes a preschool program that introduces four-year-olds to print concepts such as left to right, top to bottom, words beginning with the same sound, and upper and lower case letters. (AEA)

These parent workshop materials are designed to clarify fundamental issues and relationships pertaining to parents and literacy development in children. The workshop structure provides an opportunity for parents of preschoolers to contribute to growth in conversation and to help in the development of literacy skills. Arranged into five sessions,…

Recent research suggests that home story reading by parents may be more effective than the traditional group story reading in preschools and primary classes. Teachers should provide young children with shared book experiences to stimulate literacy interests in a familiar context and relaxed setting. Cites 27 references. (MLH)

Many librarians would like to provide a reading club which includes not only reading patrons, but pre-reading or read-to-me patrons and those parents, family members and caregivers that care for, work with and read to them. To help library staff and volunteers organize, implement and manage a read-to-me club, this planning handbook is intended to…

An effort to better prepare Choctaw youngsters for kindergarten, the Choctaw Culture Early Education Program developed a resource of 58 activities adapted to meet the needs of Choctaw 3- and 4-year olds. The activities are divided into four sections pertaining to getting started, relating to five project publications (How the Flowers Came to Be,…

This article describes a functional approach to language intervention that uses storybook reading contexts with preschool children who exhibit delayed phonological development. Oral scaffolding techniques, including discussions of narrative structure and content words, provide the modeling and metalinguistic descriptions typically used in…

This packet of materials consists of reproducible flyers to promote parents' reading aloud to children. Included are five benefits of reading aloud for children and parents; tips for reading to babies and children and for exposing them to books; suggestions for selecting books for infants; toddlers and preschoolers; a descriptive list of selected…

This study was undertaken to: (1) develop a schema from an analysis of research information on child development from birth to three years of age with literature sharing implications for library programs; (2) query librarians in the United States who offer early childhood literature sharing programs about their program practices and attitudes via…

This paper discusses ways to facilitate the emerging literacy of deaf children by encouraging bilingualism in American Sign Language and English within the context of what is known from research and practice about emerging literacy in hearing and deaf children. This approach focuses on enrichment by the addition of a second language (English)…

Principles of "shared reading," in which a book is read by the teacher, then by teacher and students together, and then by the students independently, are discussed and applied to language acquisition and reading instruction of deaf and hearing impaired children. Students use the book to help them write and compare English and American…

This article reviews the literature on the role of first-hand experiences, language, reading aloud, and scribbling on the preliteracy development of normal and visually impaired children. It describes a specific program developed by the American Printing House for the Blind which includes a handbook and 27 tactile-visual read-aloud story books.…

Reading to young children offers them many benefits including a sense of security which comes from physical closeness to an adult. In addition, the child perceives the format of print, begins to assimilate the basics of story construction, develops a prior knowledge base which is an essential ingredient of comprehension, and receives the message…

A group of elementary teachers enrolled in a graduate class in language arts at the University of North Dakota explored how children construct their own meanings as they interact with texts. One teacher regularly read to her 20-month-old grandson, and excerpts from the journal she kept reveal that his understanding of a specific text evolved to…

This report provides research-based answers to questions about literacy development from infancy to age 6, with emphasis on the development of these skills in precocious readers. The question-answer format considers the importance of reading with young children, other activities to help young children learn to read, normal development of reading…