California Preschool Learning Foundations - ECEZero2Three ...

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
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conventions preschoolers learn include
directionality (e.g., the left-to-right and
top-to-bottom organization of print in
books and other print media in English),
the way books are organized
(title, author, front and back), and the
way books are handled. Preschoolers
develop an understanding of the
functions of print—that it serves a
number of purposes related to social
and cultural contexts. In the preschool
setting, children are beginning
to understand and operate within the
routines and contexts where literacy
instruction occurs, contexts such as
reading a page and a story, writing,
and drawing. This knowledge extends
to routines governing the use of literacy
in the classroom or home, such
as reading stories, making lists, and
writing letters. Preschool-age children
also gain an understanding that print
forms (e.g., words, letters, and other
print units) have distinct names and
are used in specific, organized ways.
Knowing that the word is the basic
unit of meaning in the reading and
writing process is a critical transition
point in children’s literacy development.
Adults can encourage children’s
engagement with print by explicitly
focusing children’s attention on print
forms and functions.
Phonological Awareness. Spoken
language is made up of various phonological
units that include words, syllables,
subsyllabic units (onsets, rimes),
and sounds (phonemes). “Phonological
awareness” is generally defined as an
individual’s sensitivity to the sound (or
phonological) structure of spoken language.
It is an oral language skill that
does not involve print. Unlike the foundations
for all the other substrands,
those for phonological awareness are
written only for children between four
and five years of age. The focus is on
this age group because research indicates
that children younger than four
tend not to demonstrate this ability
in reliable ways that can be readily
observed. At age four, however,
children begin to develop phonological
awareness along a developmental
progression from sensitivity to large
units of sound, such as phrases and
words, to small units of sound, such
as syllables and phonemes. Phonological
awareness is an important area of
early and later reading instruction. It
plays a direct role in several components
of reading, such as understanding
the alphabetic principle, decoding
printed words, and spelling—and an
indirect but important role in reading
comprehension through its direct role
in facilitating decoding.
Children demonstrate phonological
awareness in three ways—detection
(matching similar sounds), synthesis
(combining smaller segments into
syllables and words), and analysis
(segmenting words or syllables
into smaller units). Children usually
develop detection skills first, then
synthesis skills, followed by analysis
skills. But children do not have to
master one skill before they begin to
acquire the next. In the foundations
for phonological awareness, there is a
progression from the ability to detect
and blend words to the ability to segment
at the onset-rime level. Preschoolers’
development of phonological
awareness depends to a great extent
on the amount and kind of support
provided by the teacher. For example,
when asking children to delete the
onset of a word, teachers can help children
remember the word by showing
pictures. The foundations for phonological
awareness indicate which skills
Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 1 • California Department of Education