Chapter 1Overview of Emergent Literacy   In recent years, our nation's policymakers and educators alike have expressed concern regarding the preliteracy experiences of our youngest children. State departments of education have worked to create frameworks outlining the literacy skills children should have in place before entering kindergarten. Indeed, much focus has been placed on how to effectively implement research-based preliteracy practices in our nation's preschools. For example, federal su -- Chapter 2Differentiating Emergent Literacy Instruction   In much of this book we describe specific lessons and strategies that may be used to develop the emergent literacy skills of young children. Our belief is that all children should have every opportunity, whether at school, at home, or in a specialized clinic, to develop what we consider to be critical precursors to skilled reading. While historical perspectives of reading development espoused the notion that children must achieve some thre -- Chapter 3How to Use this Book   The lessons in this book are designed to serve as a supplement to existing classroom curricula. Classroom teachers, speech-language pathologists, reading specialists, and special educators can use these lessons to enhance a program already in place. In this chapter, we provide suggestions on how to use this book effectively. Our guidelines are not comprehensive, nor is there "one best way" to structure instruction using this book. Indeed, the danger in a book of l.

Chapter 4Phonological Awareness   Within the toddler and preschool years, children begin to be aware of the sounds units comprising spoken language, including rime units (hat/bat) and beginning sounds shared between words (hat/hill). At the same time, children begin to recognize that words vary in syllable length, in that some words are "short" (noon) and other words are "long" (afternoon). The 15 activities presented here can be used repeatedly as presented or with the variations suggested to b -- Chapter 5Print Awareness   With these activities, the primary objective is to improve children's knowledge of the forms and functions of print as well as their understanding of the role that print plays in communicating meaning. Developing an awareness of print-including its primary forms and its functions-is one of the more defining achievements in emergent literacy development among preschool-aged children. These 15 activities can be used repeatedly with children in one-on-one, small group, or -- Chapter 6Alphabet Knowledge   With these activities, the primary objective is to increase children's knowledge of the alphabet by promoting their knowledge of the distinctive features of individual letters as well as the name of each letter and its corresponding sound(s). These 15 activities can be used repeatedly with children in one-on-one, small group, or large group sessions to foster gains in this important aspect of literacy development.   Activity Objective  1 Touch and Feel Bag Children.

Chapter 7Emergent Writing   The primary objective of these activities is to increase children's abilities to express themselves with written language. Objectives emphasize children's growth in representing the letters and sounds of the English language through writing (i.e., orthography) as well as representing their own thoughts and ideas in writing (composition). Although objectives do not focus specifically on improving motor aspects of writing (e.g., eye-hand coordination), when implementing -- Chapter 8Inferential Language   Inferential language is a relatively underemphasized aspect of young children's language development -- yet as van Kleeck and colleagues (2006) point out, language comprehension spans a continuum from literal to inferential comprehension, and the achievement of skilled language comprehension (as well as reading comprehension) relies on one being proficient along the entire continuum. It is also possible that by explicitly fostering children's comprehension of infere -- Chapter 9Vocabulary   Vocabulary development represents one of the most exciting aspects of language development during the toddler and preschool years. Perhaps this is because children's gains can be so readily observed, as with the 3-year-old child who unexpectedly notes that he likes the color "lavender" and whose parents wonder where that word came from! Although children do learn many words incidentally in their interactions with others, children do need a great deal of intentional vocabula.