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Early childhood literacy: Questions and connections that matter

adultread.jpg A study about childhood literacy and then an unrelated story about adults who cannot read out of Chicago prompted some thought about literacy here at EarlyStories.
The study from the University of British Columbia, found that neighborhoods where children live while they are in kindergarten predict their reading comprehension skills seven years later. Published in the journal Health & Place, , the researchers found a “delayed effect” of the residential environments in which children are raised.
“The researchers say it’s possible that the socioeconomic conditions of children’s early residential neighborhoods exert a strong effect later because acquiring reading skills involves the collective efforts of parents, educators, family friends and community members, as well as access to good schools, libraries, after-school programs and bookstores, ” according to an article about the study in Science Daily.
The interesting story about adult illiteracy out of Chicago prompted EarlyStories to think once again about how and why some 23 percent of the U.S. population cannot read, according to statistics from the National Center for Family Literacy. The story described a vibrant volunteer culture for a program known as Open Books in Chicago, where the number of adults who cannot read is even higher.
The story did not delve into what kind of early childhood education, if any, the adults who want to learn how to read had previously. And yet, the question must be raised. How could such large numbers of our population be so deficient in reading skills? What does that say about the way reading is — or is not taught?


POSTED BY ON January 19, 2010
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Susan Swartz
January 22, 2010
at 1:50 pm

Still astonished that the connection between low literacy, poverty and what transpires in the home seems so complicated. Poor people are typically impoverished because their educational attainment is generally low. They tend to congregate around others like themselves, and don’t possess the educational modeling or understand their own responsibilities in educating their children. It remains a constant that the single best predictor of how a child will do academically is the educational level of their mother. What school they attend is irrelevant, as is the neighborhood or community in which they reside. Public policy debate focuses on the paucity of good teachers, which is absurd, and circles the wagons entirely around the schools. It is entirely about the family, and until we begin to help support what goes on in the home, helping low education parents better work with their kids, these conversations will not address the fundamental core issue.

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