The ability to recognize the smalles sound units is an essential skill that children must master before actually learning to read.

Suitable for all early childhood educators and practitioners, Letter Links is all about the alphabetic principle from a child development point of view. It highlights the importance of using symbols in preschool along with printed letters. Letter Links takes childrenÂ's natural interest in learning to write their own name as an entryway to teaching them letter recognition skills, letter-sound correspondence, and letter/word writing by using nametags and letter-linked images. The authors also provide eight specific teaching strategies. Letter Links outlines the research behind the learning system and provides detailed examples of 64 initial letter sounds represented by 26 letters. These are the letter combinations you need to introduce the bookÂ's more than 25 fun-filled activities that involve the alphabetic principle, phonological awareness, sense of word, and vocabulary.

Shows how common early childhood practices that promote intellectual development have scientific research supporting them.

Widely recognized as a leading text in its field, this popular guide explores literacy development beginning in infancy and through fourth grade. The latest edition continues to prepare teachers to create and implement literacy-rich curricula in early childhood classrooms, while providing updates to federal legislation and highlighting the impact of state standards on educational settings. Recent technology is integrated into activities used to enhance literacy competencies. Throughout the book, the author’s approach to reflective teaching empowers teachers to become effective decision makers and thoughtful mediators in children’s transactions with literacy. A conceptual and theoretical foundation for describing reading and writing processes is followed by research-based descriptions of the signs of emergent literacy and developmentally appropriate instructional strategies. The emphasis on linguistic and cultural diversity includes an array of approaches for supporting English language learners. Chapter extension activities challenge readers to apply concepts through observation, research, curriculum development, and discussion. Sample observation and assessment forms assist in determining children’s progress in developing literacy.

Understanding the HighScope Approach is a much-needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of this innovative education programme. It will enable the reader to analyse the essential elements of the HighScope approach to early childhood and its relationship to high-quality early years practice. This second edition contains all the original content, which covers all areas of the curriculum including learning environment, plan-do-review, adult-child interaction and assessment, but has been updated to be fully in line with the latest changes to research, policy and practice. New topics and features include: ■ outdoor play and learning ■ using the HighScope approach with children with special needs and who speak English as an additional language ■ managing the approach with bigger class sizes ■■the implementation of technology with children in HighScope settings ■ a selection of new photographs Written to support the work of all those in the field of early years education and childcare, this is a vital text for students, early years and childcare practitioners, teachers, early years professionals, children’s centre professionals, lecturers, advisory teachers, head teachers and setting managers.

Provides an explanation of phonics, a method of reading instruction that focuses on the relationship between sounds and their spellings, and features over one hundred activities for the classroom, as well as sample lessons, word lists, and teaching strategies.

This book describes the benefits of using a daily message board at greeting time, guides teachers through the process of creating messages, and offers strategies for making the message board an engaging and interactive experience for children. This book also includes strategies for incorporating a daily message board into your own early childhood program, guidelines for "writing" messages, tips for follow-up activities, classroom examples with illustrations of actual messages, and a DVD showing message board time in an actual classroom.

The Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO) initiative began in 2014 as part of the global emphasis on early childhood development (ECD). Led by UNESCO, the World Bank, the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution and UNICEF, the initiative aims to promote feasible, accurate and useful measurement of childrenâs development and learning at the start of primary school, and of the quality of their pre-primary learning environments. Items are designed for children between the ages of 4 and 6 years. Following the premise that many existing tools include similar items, the leading organizationsâ core team worked with a consortium of experts, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multilaterals to build upon current measurement tools to create a common set of items organized into modules for measuring: 1) early childhood development and learning, and 2) the quality of pre-primary learning environments. The MELQO core team and experts also collaborated to outline a process for context-specific adaptation of the measurement modules resulting from lessons learned from field-testing in several countries in 2015 and 2016. The modules are designed to be implemented at scale, with an emphasis on feasibility for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A key question addressed by MELQO was the balance between a global tool suitable for use everywhere, and local priorities and goals for childrenâs development. [Introduction, ed]

“In their new book, Finn Egil Tønnessen and Per Henning Uppstad provide a set of theoretical and philosophical reflections on research in reading and dyslexia. It is a pleasure to welcome this book, which reflects the many contributions made by researchers at the National Centre for Reading Education and Research in Stavanger, Norway.” – Professor Usha Goswami, University of Cambridge. Careful reflection on the concepts and methods used is a prerequisite for further development in any field of research. The authors think cognitive psychology has become too dominant in reading and dyslexia research, arguing that it should be combined with behaviourism and connectionism – in part by focusing on the concept of ‘skill’. The key components of a skill are claimed to be automaticity, awareness and shifts between them. Reading is defined as an interpretative skill, which should be viewed from the perspective of hermeneutics. The authors use these fundamental analyses and definitions to shed new light on the ‘balanced approach to reading instruction’, ‘reading fluency’ and other key concepts. The book also deals with problems in the definition of ‘dyslexia’ and proposes a method to arrive at clear and fruitful definitions. It concludes with a chapter trying to answer the question of in what sense, or to what extent, it can be claimed that reading and dyslexia research has made progress. The book mainly builds on articles published over the past 25 years by Professor Finn Egil Tønnessen at the National Centre for Reading Education and Research, Stavanger, Norway.