Historical Perspectives on Literacy in Early Childhood

Purpose: To more fully understand current trends in preliteracy research, as well as controversies that continue to surround best teaching practices, it is essential to have an understanding of the historical evolution of ideas and practices relevant to preparing young children for learning to read....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of speech-language pathology 2010-11, Vol.19 (4), p.341-355
Main Authors: van Kleeck, Anne, Schuele, C. Melanie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Best Practices
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Children
Children & youth
Clinical medicine
Cognition & reasoning
Core curriculum
Early Reading
Education
Education - history
Educational History
Educational Practices
Familiarity
Family Role
Functional Literacy
Grade 1
History
History, 15th Century
History, 18th Century
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
History, Ancient
Humans
Literacy
Literacy Education
Philosophy - history
Preschool children
Preschool Education
Protestant Reformation
Reading
Reading teachers
Society
Teaching Methods
Thinking Skills
Trend Analysis
Young Children
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose: To more fully understand current trends in preliteracy research, as well as controversies that continue to surround best teaching practices, it is essential to have an understanding of the historical evolution of ideas and practices relevant to preparing young children for learning to read. Method: Several interrelated historical movements relevant to placing current research and practices related to preliteracy development in context are reviewed. These ideas play out in the interrelated and changing ideas regarding the role of the family in children's literacy development, as well as in the appropriate curriculum for preschoolers. Both historical reviews and original documents pertinent to the various historical trends are used to provide the current synthesis. Conclusions: The roots of most current practices during, and controversies regarding, the preliteracy period of development can be traced to a variety of different historical events, as well as to prominent philosophers and educators. Familiarity with these events, philosophers, and educators provides the perspective needed to effectively evaluate new information and approaches that come to the forefront, or that are currently being practiced by different groups or in different settings. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)
ISSN:1058-0360
1558-9110
DOI:10.1044/1058-0360(2010/09-0038)