Literacy Development in Children - Case Study Example

WORDS COUNT: 2500 Name: Course: Institution: Instructor’s Name: Date: THE TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of content 2 Introduction 3 Background information 3 Description of the children 4 Interests’ identification 5 Extension of the Experiences based on the Children’s initial interests 6 Oral listening 6 Watching television 7 Reading or looking at some pictures from the book 8 Introduction of a new Language 8 Learning that facilitated by actions 9 Conclusions 10 Reference 11 Introduction This project deals with a detailed report of an interest-based emergent literacy project with a small group of children 1-5 years old (between three-five children in total). It follows a plan process detailed below. Documentation of the project has also been done using a range of methods of recording. The documentation was then shared with children, colleagues and families throughout the process. The development of a child begins at an early age. It should therefore, be noted that also the literacy development of any given child begins at a very early age. In most cases, the development usually does not depend on the activity of reading and writing but with the child’s interaction with the surrounding. This means that all what a child interacts with as far as common sense is involved influences their literacy development. This means that emergent literacy involves a child’s early behaviors as far as reading of the pictures and writing or scribbling down is concerned (Stratton & Wright, 2010). A very important part of all this is the fact that they are all what describes the development of a child as far as literacy is concerned. However, there are other very important influences to the development of the same. They involve the parents or guardians, teachers and their early childhood educators. It should also be noted that, there are other factors that affects the development of any child’s literacy like the kind of environment a child is raised in terms of the exposure or availability of literacy rich materials. All of the above, combined enables a child to develop from the emergent reading to conventional reading hence improving their skills in reading and eventually in writing. Background information The process of literacy development in children starts at an early age and even before, they embark on their elementary schooling. It is very amazing how the development of the same varies in different children of the same age. The development starts as early as the age of five months and runs up to the send year of the child’s life. This is because it is the age at which the child begins to hear the oral communication. At this point, there are some factors, which will influence the child’s literacy development like the language in which people he or she is in contact with. As a result, by the time a child gets to the age of two years to three years, he or she is able to make some speeches that can be understood from whatever he or she reads or even writes. At the age between three to four years, the children begin to show some rapid improvement in literacy development. This is evident in the fact that they begin to read books that are favorite to them as well as look at the pictures that really interest them. In most cases these children will even be so glad to speak about what they read or see in these books or pictures (Walker-Dalhouse, 2009)). They also try to create some imaginational stories out of the pictures they watch or look at. Another feature of literacy development at this age is the fat that the children start to scribble down what they see in the books that they read. It is actually at this stage that the child starts schooling. This means that they are taught to write the alphabetical letters. At this point, it should be noted that the alphabetical letters though written in the same way, there is difference in their pronunciation depending on background in terms of the language spoken in that place. By the age of five, most children are now in school going through the formal education. Description of the children The projects entails a group of four children named John, Peter, Mary and Jane of which two of them are of the same age while the rest two are of the same age but with a difference in terms of months and also social background. In addition, two of the children are males while the other two are males (Ysseldyke et al., 2006). The choice was to be able to show diversity in terms of literacy development among them and some of the factors that affects that development of the same. John is a child that was three years and five months old. This boy is a pupil in a center called excel. Jane is a child that was four-year-old. This girl is a pupil at a center called success. Peter is a child that was four-year-old. He is a pupil at a center known as success. Mary is a child that was three years and five months old girl. She is a child in a center called excel. Interests Identification The individual interest of these four children differed. All of them came from different centers. When the project was set up to be done, there was a need for me to go around identifying the children to be used for the projects as the case. In order to identify each of their interest, I had to involve them all in a number of activities. Some of the activities that I took them through include watching television, reading or looking at some pictures, listening to a lecture from someone, listening to the radio and writing. The children were attracted these activities in very different way. One of the ways in which I recognized the interest of the individual child was through the way in which they responded at the mention of the activities. It was very evident from the way they responded what a particular child loved. A very good example of this was because every time before the activity was laid down for them to undertake, I would take a day before the activity and then I would announce it in the middle of the class. By doing that, I was able to understand which child looked expectant to be part of that particular activity. This would be shown by their facial expression as well as the comments that they gave. In a group of the children, it was evident that some were e expectant as far as that particular activity was concerned (Crespo, 2005). Another way in which I would get to know was by what the children shared about these activities. A child who was interested in a particular activity would spend much of their time either talking about it or meditating about the issue. In addition to that, the difference that was very clearly drawn concerning the reactions of the children was the passion with which the child spoke about that activity. Another in which I recognized the interest of the children was through the frequent at which any given child would be involved in the activity even on his own. By this I mean that some of the children would at least take an initiative of doing the activity even in the absence of any person. Extension of the Experiences based on the Children’s initial interests After identifying the activities that the children were, most interested in, there a need for the extension of these particular activities to be clearly able to evaluate the literacy development of these children. Basically, before, during and after any given activity, I would keenly evaluate the behaviors of the four children Oral listening This is basically an activity that involved oral listening of a story as it was being narrated by a narrator. There are a number of issues that basically I had to look at. This method was basically for Jane. This is because she was a blind child. Physical impairment is not an hindrance to any child from them literally developing. Like this small girl, apparently she became blind at the age three years and six months. This means that the only way she could develop the art of reading and writing was through the earlier experiences she had. In other words the have to use the concepts of the environment that were earlier constructed in their mind. During the narration, I would see her taking very keen interest in that entire narrator was saying. Occasionally, she would show a nod of agreement and at times, a smile would be seen (crespo, 2007). This to me meant that she was really getting what the narrator was saying. Many are the times; she would come over to the narrator to somehow try to confirm if what she thought he said was what was in her mind. This is whereby, for instance she came at one particular moment to ask the narrator the difference between a cow and a goat. One of the things I noted here was that she actually, knew that difference from her first experiences but she still wanted to try getting the difference. As per what I noted is that for one she knew the different physical features that existed between the two. She knew that a goat is smaller than a cow and that the way a cow sounds is not the same way goat does. Later the kid started drawing some figures and scribbling down some words according to the imagination, she had of that particular thing that was said to her. Mary was the other kid who was very much interested in this particular method. She unlike Jane was not at all blind. She had her eyesight. One thing about her is that she would go back to the her papers and try scribbling down what she had heard. In addition to that, she would also go ahead to confirm and clear her doubts about anything that she heard. Watching television This is whereby one uses his or her eyes to look at the images as well as hear sound. This particular method involves the use of the eyes to look at the images and then as well as the ears to be able to put something down. In my project work Peter was the child that really got so much interested in this kind of a method. I noted this because after every encounter of any watching, he would then go sit down and start scribbling down some things. There is a particular program that this boy was so much interested in such that if that program was to be there he had to sit down and watch as well as follow every instruction. This particular program involved a lesson on drawing. This is whereby, an instructor in the television would tell al he children watching him to pick up a list of materials and then follow instruction. This particular kid was very faithful in doing the same. Actually, I had to make a follow up at home to see how keen he was. One thing I noted was that, for every instruction this boy could understand, he would clearly follow it up. He did not perfectly draw everything in the paper. According to what he drew, at least there was some evidence of development (Marvin & Mirenda, 2009). Reading or looking at some pictures from the book In this particular form of literacy development method, any growing child is exposed to some form of drawings or books for them to study. This is whereby they are given books with some pictures and out of those pictures; they can be asked some question. In my period of research, John was the student that I used to show this form of literacy development method. I would give the child together with the rest of the classmate some pictures to look at. Apparently, this particular boy, among all the other pupils, would come up with a very well demonstrated story out of what he looked at. This is whereby, I would have a session after the activity with each of the child and I would let them narrate to me what the pictures represented and the flow of the story right from what they thought in their minds. This particular boy seemed to have very interesting story of the pictures (Gibson, 2009). Introduction of a new Language Not all the four children that were involved in the project were familiar with English language but they were only raised up in the background of their own languages. It was very hard for me to introduce the English language to the pupils. This is because after they were raised in the background of their own language, pronunciation was a very hard thing for them. There was a need for them to be taught all the alphabets to be able to construct a good grammatical language. There was a very great need of attention to be given to these children because they had very weak skills in their oral English. This is because they did not have the ability to easily read the words or rather pronounce the words meaning I had to take them through the process of studying the alphabetical letters as well as to pronounce them. The action that I took was to ensure the children are at least familiar with the oral English so that they can be able to study the written English. I used all the means to ensure the children get to know how each of the alphabets was pronounced as well as written (Clay, 2010). Learning that facilitated by actions At some point, there was a need for me to do some actions so as they could be able to develop. One of the ways that I used was to get the kids arrange words that matched. In this kid of activity, I used two particular papers. In those papers, I wrote in one of them one word while in the other one two word which are as follows. “Not late” and “late”. I realized that not all of them could put the appropriate words together. Some of the kids were very accurate in doing it while others really mixed up the words. By doing such an action, I wanted to see how sharp the kids would be. Another action that I used was to let the kids identify words that looked the same from the passage like the ones I had also identified. In this particular activity I realized that they were all very good at picking the words in had picked. Conclusion In conclusion, The process of literacy development in children starts at an early age and even before, they embark on their elementary schooling. It is very amazing how the development of the same varies in different children of the same age. The development starts as early as the age of five months and runs up to the send year of the child’s life. This is because it is the age at which the child begins to hear the oral communication. I would say that the project was successful in the sense that I was able to see the literacy development of the children including the visually impaired ones (Anderson et al., 2004). Reference Anderson, E.S., Dunlea, A., & Kekelis, L.S. (2004). Blind children's language: Resolving some differences. Journal of Child Language, 11, 646-665. Clay, M.M. (2010). Becoming literate: The construction of inner control. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books Gibson, L. (2009). Literacy development in the early years: Through children's eyes. New York: Teachers College Press Crespo, S. (2007). Storybooks for blind infants and children. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 84, 39-40. Crespo, S. (2005). Storybooks for blind infants and children. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 84, 39-40. Marvin, C. & Mirenda, P. (2009). Home literacy experiences of preschoolers enrolled in Head Start and special education programs. Journal of Early Intervention, 17, 351-367. Stratton, J.M. & Wright, S. (2010). On the way to literacy: Early experiences for young visually impaired children. Louisville, KY: American Printing House for the Blind. Walker-Dalhouse, D. (2009). Beginning reading and the African-American child at risk. Young Children, 49(i), 24-28. Ysseldyke, J.E., Thurlow, M.L., & Gilman, C.J. (2006). Educational outcomes and indicators for early childhood (age 3). Minneapolis: National Center on Educational Outcomes, University of Minnesota. Read More