What Do Children Need to Know?

A key focus of early childhood intervention research in recent years has been on the identification of emergent literacy skills that are most predictive of school success. Findings suggest that there are specific precursor skills that develop in the years from birth to age five that have a clear and consistently strong relationship with children's later ability to read and write. Four of these key skills are described below and provide the research foundation on which Clayton Early Learning curricula and teaching strategies are based:

A child's understanding of spoken language and knowledge of increasingly complex vocabulary A child's ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet (including knowledge of letter sounds and the blending of letter sounds) A child's ability to hear the different sounds of spoken language and recognize similarities and differences between words (including beginning sounds, ending sounds, words that rhyme and syllables) A child's knowledge of the purposes and conventions of print (including that print carries a meaning and that sentences are made up of a series of words that can be read from left to right)

For a copy of the National Early Literacy Report (2009), follow this link http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/publications/pdf/NELPReport09.pdf.

How Do Teachers Facilitate Development of These Skills in Children?

Teachers in Clayton Educare and Project REAL classrooms use a variety of tools to develop children's oral language, alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness and understanding of print.

In the classroom, teachers combine Creative Curriculum with Scholastic's Building Language for Literacy curriculum in order to ensure that children are progressing along a well-defined continuum of literacy development. Through extended projects, teachers support children to develop a deep understanding of concepts and embed literacy, math and science into a variety of experiences that children find engaging and meaningful. In coaching, teachers reflect on their ongoing interactions with children in an effort to ensure that they are creating teacher-child interactions that are most supportive of later literacy outcomes. Teachers are supported to use data from ongoing and standardized assessments to individualize literacy instruction and scaffold children's language skills. In collaboration with parents, teachers provide easy and engaging language and literacy activities for parents to do with their children while at home. Teachers also facilitate "family fun nights" that allow parents time to interact with their children around the key predictors of literacy (listed above).