Linking Literacy with Social-Emotional Development

Linking Literacy with Social-Emotional Development Lori Connors-Tadros, Ph.D. Technical Assistance Specialist for Literacy National Child Care Information Center Tweety Yates, Ph.D. Co-Project Coordinator Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning Southern Stories: Literacy Traditions for Young Children May 7, 2003

Child Development Research Key Findings: • How young children feel is as important as how they think, particularly with regard to school readiness. • Emotional development occurs on a parallel path to early literacy development in the context of positive relationships. Source: FromNeurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development

Language, Literacy, and Social- Emotional Development • Hearing words allows a baby to self regulate. • Saying words allows a toddler to self regulate. • Expressing ideas helps a preschooler to self regulate.

What is Emergent Literacy? • The Emergent Literacy perspective emphasizes the gradual acquisition of literacy via formal and informal mechanisms from infancy to school age. • Literacy develops along a continuum, ranging from pre-reading to reading skills.

What is Emergent Literacy? Oral language Phonological awareness Print Knowledge

What is Social- Emotional Development? • The developmentally and culturally appropriate ability to: • Manage Emotions • Relate to Adults • Relate to Peers • Feel Good About Self

How are they interrelated? • “…We have found that emotional and intellectual development cannot be separated; that these two functions come together as the child actively explores the emotional, social, and cognitive challenges at each of these stages.”Stanley Greenspan, M.D.

Social-Emotional Development: A Pathway to Successful Reading Children are more likely to learn important cognitive skills when they: • are confident; • can persist at tasks; and • can engage in interactions with other children and adults.

Oral Language • Children learn new words by hearing them read (receptive vocabulary). • When an adult explains the word to the child he/she begins to internalize the meaning and will use the word in his/her speech (expressive vocabulary).

Quality of Words • The kinds of words that children hear are important: • Rare words, sustained conversation • Complexity of sentence structure • The tone of the words that children hear is important. Source: Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children

Second Language Learners • The quality of the interaction, not the language of the interaction, promotes very young children’s interest and ability to communicate in meaningful ways. • A strong foundation in language and lots of exposure to literacy activities is the key to ensuring all children are ready for school. Source: Handbook of Early Literacy Research

Phonological Awareness • Is the ability to distinguish between units of sound or to identify rhyming words. • Songs, rhyming games, and word play support children’s phonological development. • These activities also support children’s social-emotional development. Source: Scientist in the Crib: What early learning tells us about the mind

Print Knowledge Alphabetic principle • The alphabet • Relationship between letters and sounds Concepts about print • Reading left to right • Print on a page corresponds to words in a sentence • Language related to books - title, author, illustrator

Indicators of School Success Social Development Emotional Development Literacy Development Ready for School

Reading Aloud • “The single most important activity for building [literacy] understandings and skills essential for reading success appears to be reading aloud to children.” Source: What Research Reveals

Reading Aloud • Reading aloud builds children’s literacy skills when children are engaged in the activity. • Children who are more engaged during reading aloud are more motivated to read and have better literacy skills. Source: Handbook of Early Literacy Research

Reading Aloud • Children are also more engaged when they have a positive relationship with the adult who is reading to them. Source: Handbook of Early Literacy Research

Storytelling • Storytelling offers an opportunity to support children’s social-emotional development by building self-esteem and giving legitimacy to cultural practices and traditions. • Children’s understanding of storytelling contributes to their vocabulary development and understanding of story forms (beginning, middle, end).

Recommendations • We should not debate the relative importance of language/literacy development and social-emotional development. • They are interdependent and interrelated such that it is not possible to focus on one without focusing on the other. • Our focus should be on learning opportunities that integrate social-emotional and language and literacy development.

Thank you! Comments & Questions

Linking Literacy with Social-Emotional Development