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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

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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: From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early

Childhood Development

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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.

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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.

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What is Emergent Literacy?

Oral language

Phonological awareness

Print Knowledge

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What is Social- Emotional Development?

The developmentally and culturally appropriate ability to:

Manage Emotions Relate to Adults Relate to Peers Feel Good About Self

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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.

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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.

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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).

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Quality of WordsThe kinds of words that children

hear are important:Rare words, sustained conversationComplexity of sentence structure

The tone of the words that children hear is important.

Source: Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children

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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

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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

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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

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Indicators of School Success

Social Development

Emotional Development

Literacy Development

Ready for School

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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

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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

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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

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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).

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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.

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Thank you!

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