In these days of increased testing and continued failure of inner-city and poor rural schools to meet the grade, it is becoming more and more necessary to turn to the public library to help students reach the ever-increasing goals being set for them. It seems somewhat unfair to hold the schools solely responsible for continued failure when the…

An interview with David Olson concerning his current research on the relation between the oral conversational language of preschool children and the formalized language of written texts. (RAE)

Describes several techniques that enable parents to prepare their preschool children for the actual process of learning how to read that they will encounter when they enter school. (FL)

Discusses research and instances of children learning to read and or write in the home without formal instruction, tracing the development of such natural literacy. Argues that literacy is primarily a social process, involving both teaching and learning. (HTH)

Addresses the issue of what happens to developing readers and spellers when they are given phonics instruction by describing the experiences of one six-year-old girl who received phonics instruction in kindergarten. (BB)

Annotates a number of books that can help teachers demonstrate for young children the importance of reading. (FL)

Discusses the importance of preschool literacy training. (FL)

Calls for reforms in instructional practices and curricula control in literacy programs that disenfranchise five- and six-year-olds who have already served for months or years as active members of the literacy club. Illustrated by one child's early literacy and kindergarten experiences. (BB)

Explains that if the ability to read in the fullest sense can be fostered from infancy in and out of school, children will grow to be the highly literate society of tomorrow. (DF)

Unproven beliefs about the process of reading and its instruction and about the effects of maturation and social structure on learning have obscured the question of what children know about how to read. An alternate conceptualization proposes that to learn to read children must obtain experience in three reading contexts: the use of print and its…

Explores how children become oriented to literacy and how their perceptions of the purpose of print develop as they move toward becoming more fluent users of print. (DF)

Discusses factors that foster the development of young voluntary readers. Reviews studies that describe home and school characteristics that encourage voluntary reading and stresses the importance of providing young students with a rich literary environment in the classroom. (FL)

Highlights the importance of the father in children's early reading and writing experiences, explaining the need for both planned events (i.e., nightly stories or weekly library visits) and unplanned events (i.e., spontaneous trips or playing games) and emphasizing the need for nurturing children's natural curiosity about print. (SM)

Extracted from a doctoral thesis on young children's emergent literacy, this paper describes the literacy development of one five-year-old subject. The paper first describes the subject's home environment, her relationships with family members, and her early reading experience and literacy development. Transcripts illustrating her home reading…

Argues that teachers can take advantage of child-initiated explorations to develop beginning reading and writing skills. Offers specific recommendations and suggestions. (FL)