NELP REPORT CHAPTER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS - Essay Example

Summary of Identification of Children’s Skills and Abilities to Later Outcomes in Reading, Writing, and Spelling The purpose of National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) is to help identify the practices, which can prove helpful for preschool children in their literacy. For some scholars reading problems can be result of phonological awareness (PA), and alphabet knowledge (AK), while others regard and letter knowledge, and phonological processing as factors influencing reading and writing. NELP surveyed numbers of articles to determine the factors which could help in overcoming reading problems.

The research points out receptive and expressive skills. Receptive skills range from simple decoding to reading comprehension while expressive skills include spelling and composition. Further the analysis is divided into primary and secondary analyses. Primary analyses try to identify preschool and kindergarten predictors of conventional literacy skills. While secondary analyses are about the questions concerning the age of assessment for the predictor variable and the age of assessment for the measurement of the conventional literacy outcome variable.

Since accuracy of statistics is not perfect therefore Confidence Interval is used to measure the estimate of accuracy. Data about different skills related to decoding reveal strong relationship for Alphabet Knowledge (AK) while moderate relation for Phonological Awareness (PA), oral language, ability to write and concept about print. The data about skills related to reading reveal moderate relationship for AK, print knowledge, PA and rapid naming while a low correlations for phonological STM, oral language, and writing.

The data about skills related to spelling show an average correlation for concepts about print and PA skills, while moderate relationship was found for oral language skills, writing, phonological STM and rapid naming of objects or colors. In order to further authenticate these finding Multivariate Studies is consulted. These studies have shown that AK, PA, concepts about print and phonological STM remain significant factors when related with decoding, reading and spelling while controlling other factors.

However oral language does not prove significant. AK, PA, rapid naming of letters and digits, rapid naming of objects and colors, writing and phonological STM prove consistently significant factors. The findings are on very broad age range and time. The already exposed children show different and better skills. Similarly the correlations differ for kindergarten, first-grade and second-grade. These findings can help educators in determining what to focus on and get better results. Analysis It is a very well written and documented chapter.

The focus of the chapter is on finding different skills, which can prove helpful in later reading, writing and spelling. There are many tables in the chapters and they show the relationships of different skills. The chapter is designed for experts and therefore it may prove difficult for starters. The language of the chapter is easy and it avoids difficult words. Technical terms are used but they are at the minimum and when required. The style of writing is very compact and to the point. The writers are able to make their point clear by citing many tables and then explaining those tables in easy to understand manner.

The findings of the chapter can help teachers in determining their goals. The findings of the chapter can prove beneficial to the teachers of young children in stressing on those skills which can prove helpful in future. These findings are also helpful in designing curriculum for children. The writers have tried to cover maximum possible aspects and this has greatly helped in making the work a reliable source. Work Cited Christopher J. Lonigan, Chris Schatschneider, Laura Westberg (2008), Identification of Children’s Skills and Abilities to Later Outcomes in Reading, Writing, and Spelling, The National Early Literacy Panel Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel, 81-105.