Reach Out and Read
Reach Out and Read is an evidence based nonprofit organization promoting early literacy and school
readiness in pediatric exam rooms nationwide. They've got 28,000 doctors, nurses and medical providers
raising awareness on the programs developed from their 14 published research studies.
Here's the 1, 2, 3's on their vital research:
- Reading aloud to children is the single most effective tool for developing language and literacy.
- The 3.9 million children served by Reach Out and Read enter kindergarten with a 6 month developmental edge.
- Currently, 34% of children enter kindergarten without the basic language skills they will need to learn to read.
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This link will take you to the Reach Out and Read website to learn more.
Developing Early Literacy
Conventional reading and writing skills that are developed in the years from birth to age 5 have a
clear and consistently strong relationship with later conventional literacy skills. Additionally,
six variables representing early literacy skills or precursor literacy skills had medium to large
predictive relationships with later measures of literacy development. These six variables not only
correlated with later literacy as shown by data drawn from multiple studies with large numbers of
children but also maintained their predictive power even when the role of other variables, such as
IQ or socioeconomic status (SES), were accounted for. These six variables include:
- alphabet knowledge (AK): knowledge of the names and sounds associated with printed letters
- phonological awareness (PA): the ability to detect, manipulate, or analyze the auditory
aspects of spoken language (including the ability to distinguish or segment words,
syllables, or phonemes), independent of meaning
- rapid automatic naming (RAN) of letters or digits: the ability to rapidly name a sequence of random letters or digits
- RAN of objects or colors: the ability to rapidly name a sequence of repeating random sets of pictures of objects (e.g., “car,” “tree,” “house,” “man”) or colors
Source: National Institute for Literacy
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NAEYC and IRA: Where We Stand on Learning to Read and Write
Literacy doesn’t begin at kindergarten—or even in preschool. Babies respond to adults talking to them;
1-year-olds point to pictures in books; and 2-year-olds chant nursery rhymes. These and other first steps lay the foundations for literacy.
Source: National Association for the Education of Young Children
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Six Early Literacy Skills
Young children need a variety of skills to become successful readers. A panel of reading experts has determined that six specific early literacy skills become
the building blocks for later reading and writing. Research indicates that children who enter school with more of these skills are better able to benefit from the
reading instruction they receive when they arrive at school.
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