The development of emergent literacy is an important issue of broad interest in the modern society (Emergent Literacy, 1992, p. 6). Especially within parents and teachers of young children. And it is clear that some specific methods should be applied to develop emergent literacy in children with some kinds of disabilities. The present essay is dedicated to the critical analysis of the article Emergent Literacy Skills During Early Childhood in Children with Hearing Loss: Strength and Weaknesses.
The article is dedicated to the problem of developing literacy skills in deaf and hard hearing children in early childhood years. The research is stated to “learn more about the early development of literacy skills by examining changes over a typical school year for small children (aged 3-6) with hearing losses”(Easterbrooks et al, 2008, p. 92) specifically within the group of young children, because of the lack of research in that field. Though the similar research have been made on the groups of children of other age (Colin et all, 2007, p. 144). The particular attention was paid to phonological awareness, alphabetics, and vocabulary as to major influential components of the development of literacy (National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 37). The authors clearly motivate their research. They provide the list of research questions they are going to pay particular attention and clearly answer them in the Discussion section. They also point to the specific results and issues of DHH children of the researched group and provide technics and methods that can be applied to improve strategies for their literacy development.
The article is written in a clear understandable language. It clearly states the reasons for the research and provides the convictive background based on the vast reference section. It is obvious that the authors dedicated much of their time and sources to the problem. Despite its significant extent, the article is also structured well. The big units are divided into smaller subunits to help a reader to understand the material better. All the results are presented in detailed graphs and tables. The section including the methods provides detailed description of the searched group of children including the classes they attend, the methods applied in their education, the conditions they were in during the school day their age, the criteria the children were picked up for the research. The method section also contains the list of methods and procedures applied, with a detailed description on each. All the methods are grouped by the type of the skill researched.
The present article gives a clear idea that much attention should be paid to children with some sort of disabilities, especially hard hearing children, as some results of the analyzed research provide the facts that the ratio of the development of such children in some aspects is the same as for children with no disabilities. But in a certain period due to hearing problems the rate of development slows down (Traxler, 2000, p. 346). That can be easily overcome by processing some detailed protocols and directions for working with children with this disability, helping with improving the state of their literacy. Helping them to communicate with other children and adults with no hearing problems to get new experiences is also important as well as to all other children as Ruth Wilson, Professor Emeritus of Special Education mentions (Wilson, 2008, par. 14).
The analyzed article seems to have the strong theoretical background. The research methods were picked up thoughtfully, as well as the big deal of the attention was paid to the selection of children to the studied group. The article presents clear results and suggests further strategies for raising the level of emergent literacy of hard hearing children. Much of the attention was paid by authors to the problem of literacy development.
References
Colin, S., Magnan, A., Ecalle, J., & Leybaert, J. (2007). Relation between deaf children’s phonological skills in kindergarten and word recognition performance in first grade. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 48(2) 139–146.
Easterbrooks, S. R., Lederberg, A. R., Miller, E. M., Bergeron J., & McDonald Connor, C. (2008). Emergent Literacy Skills During Early Childhood in Children With Hearing Loss: Strengths and Weaknesses. The Volta Review, 108(2), 91–114.
Emergent Literacy in Early Childhood Education: Course on Emergent Literacy in Early Childhood Education. (1992). Haifa, Israel: The Mount Carmel International Training Center.
National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. (2000) Washington DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Traxler, C.B. (2000). The Stanford Achievement Test, 9th Edition: National norming and performance standards for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 5(4), 337–348.
Wilson, R. (2008). Emergent Literacy. Early Childhood News. Web.