Early Literacy

In recent years, unprecedented attention has been focused on early literacy. Federal, state, and local initiatives are taking on the challenge of improving reading achievement with literacy programs involving families, local schools, and communities. Young children with disabilities and their families need to be part of these initiatives. Evidenced-based practices for teaching literacy skills to all young children can also inform literacy initiatives for young children with disabilities.

OSEP-Funded Early Literacy Resources

• Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL)
  CELL is a research-to-practice technical assistance center funded by OSEP to promote the adoption and sustained use of evidence-based early literacy learning practices by early childhood intervention practitioners, parents, and other caregivers of young children, birth to five years of age, with identified disabilities, developmental delays, and those at-risk for poor outcomes. CELL products include practice-based research syntheses and summaries, evidence-based practice guides, and tool kits.
• Reading Rockets - Launching Young Readers
  Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project funded by OSEP to provide accurate, accessible information on how young children learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help. The Reading Rockets Web site provides a wealth of reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better.
• Show all currently funded OSEP Early Literacy Projects

U.S. Department of Education's Early Literacy Resources

• What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) - Early Childhood Education
  The WWC provides high-quality reviews of the effectiveness of replicable educational interventions. The Early Childhood Education reviews focus on curricula and practices designed for use with 3- to 5-year-olds to develop cognitive and language competencies associated with school readiness. A number of these relate to early literacy.
• Helping My Child Read - Reading Resources
  These resources provide parents with tools, practical lessons, and activities to help their children build early language and literacy skills.
• Early Reading First
  This program is designed to transform existing early education programs into centers of excellence that prepare young children, especially those from low-income families, to enter kindergarten with the necessary language, cognitive, and early reading skills to ensure school success.

Position Statements

• Learning to Read and Write
  This joint position statement of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) was issued in 1998 to provide guidance to teachers of young children in schools and in early childhood programs (including child care centers, preschools, and family child care homes) serving children from birth through age 8 years.
• Literacy Development in the Preschool Years
  This position statement from the International Reading Association (IRA), adopted in 2005, highlights the importance of preschool; the nature of language development and literacy-based instruction in quality preschools; what to aim for in preschool teachers’ preparation and professional development; and recommendations for preschool educators, early childhood and elementary educators, public school boards, teacher educators, policymakers, and community leaders.

Other Programs and Resources

• Washington Learning Systems provides evidence-based programs to promote early literacy, language, cognitive, and social development. Materials are available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Mandarin. Free parent-child activities in the preschool and birth-to-three range are available online. These activities complement the "Language is the Key" evidence-based early literacy video programs, which can be previewed online.
• ZERO TO THREE offers a collection of resources for families and professionals related to early language and literacy.
• Get Ready to Read! (GRTR!) is a national program that provides research-based strategies to parents, early education professionals, and child care providers to help build the early literacy skills of preschool-aged children. GRTR is an initiative of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.
• The Division on Early Childhood (DEC) publishes a Young Exceptional Children Monograph Series, which is available for purchase online. Scan down to No 7: Early Literacy, Horn and Jones (2005).
• The National Center for Family Literacy is a non-profit organization supporting family literacy services through programming, training, research, advocacy, and dissemination.
• The National Institute for Literacy's Partnership for Reading is a national reading research dissemination project authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-110). The Partnership for Reading's mission is to make scientifically-based reading research more accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, and other interested individuals.
• The National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC) provides links to a collection of literacy materials.
• Links to a collection of digests on emergent literacy and other emergent skills are available on our Gateway to Scientific Literature Web site.
  Links on this site are verified monthly. This page content was last updated on 05/02/2008.