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Emergent Literacy in Children

FATHER AND SON
While literacy includes reading and writing skills, it also involves a relationship with expressive language (communication). Many of the same basic skills needed for oral language are also needed for written language, with the addition of some higher-level skills.

Early indicators a child may have difficulty with literacy:
  • Family history of reading disability.
  • First word not produced until after 15 months of age.
  • Words not combined until after 24 months of age.
  • Difficulty pronouncing words when older than 6 years of age.
  • Lack of awareness and ability to use rhymes during preschool years.
  • Inability to segment words into syllables after age 5.

Writing

Writing is the most complex form of language. A child's language difficulties may be most obvious in his or her writing, and children with oral language problems are more likely to have difficulties with writing, such as, spelling errors, word order errors, incorrect word choices based on meaning, and grammar errors including leaving out words and word endings. Writing difficulties can affect a child's success in school and can lead to problems in all subjects.

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize sounds that make up words. This includes identifying words that rhyme, deciding if words begin or end with the same sounds, understanding that sounds can be changed to create new words, and separating words into their individual sounds.

Children who have literacy difficulties usually have poor phonological awareness.

Most Children Develop Phonological Awareness Skills as Follows:

By 3 years
  • Familiar with known nursery rhymes (Jack and JilI).
  • Recognizes alliterations (words that begin with the same sound like “my muffin”).
  • Recognizes words that rhyme (cat and hat ).
By 4 years
  • Can break a sentence into separate words.
  • Can break a multi-syllabic words into syllables (“hotdog” has two parts, “hot” and “dog”).
  • Says words that rhyme.
By 5 years
  • Counts the number of syllables in words.
  • Can break the beginning sound from the rest of the word (c-at).
  • Blends the beginning sound with the rest of the word.
  • Identifies a word that does not rhyme with another (hat does not rhyme with dog and fog).
By 6 years
  • Makes up rhymes.
  • Matches initial consonants in words (dog and dad begin with the same sound).
  • Blends two or three sounds to make a word.
  • Segments initial consonant blends from the rest of the word (divides track into tr- and -ack).
  • Can separate the final consonant from the rest of the word (make = ma- and -k).
By 7 years
  • Counts the number of sounds in a word.
  • Blends isolated sounds to form words.
  • Can break out sounds within words.
  • Spells by sounding out words.
  • Adds sounds to, or deletes sounds from words.
By 8 years
  • Rearranges sounds in a word to make a new word (e.g., moves t- in tar to the end to make art).
  • Can separate blended consonant sounds (basket = “s” and “k”).
  • Deletes blended consonant sounds (???? samples).
Adapted from Assessment in Speech-Language Pathology, Shipley (2009)

If you have concerns about your child’s development of language skills, see your healthcare practitioner or Contact Our Office to arrange an assessment.

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