YOUNG CHILDREN AND WRITING
exchange
Beginnings
Workshop
42
JULY/AUGUST 2009
Reprinted with permission from Exchange magazine.
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can babies read and write?
by Deb Curtis
Deb Curtis currently
works with toddlers
at Milgard Child
Development Center. She
is co-author with Margie
Carter of the book
Learning Together with
Young Children (Redleaf
Press, 2007). She and
Margie have been leading
professional development
institutes to help
teachers study with
the Thinking Lens.
explicitly pointing to the letters in the book. What did
someone so young know about letters? When Sofia’s
mom arrived to pick her up I described my curiosity
and asked her to tell me about Sofia’s knowledge of
books and letters. She excitedly told me the story of
how she and Sofia’s older brother do homework each
night, focusing on reading, writing, and phonics and
Sofia eagerly wants to join in. She told me, “Sofia
knows letter sounds now, almost as much as her
brother does and she loves to write them, too.” At that
point she got out her cell phone and proudly showed
me multiple photos of Sofia with clipboard and pen,
intensely focused on writing lines of letters.
Adult concerns about literacy development in early
childhood fill the airwaves and have begun to trickle
down and impact experiences for children under
three. Infomercials promote the notion that “your baby
can read,” showing happy babies identifying words on
flashcards and toddlers writing letters. My first reaction is dismay: Why on earth would someone spend
the precious, short time of babyhood forcing attention
on isolated literacy skills and drills? But then my
curiosity is piqued; the children look joyful and
excited to be playing these games. Rather than
worrying about what the children are learning, I want
to discover what they see and understand about
these interactions and the lines and squiggles that
we call reading and writing. What is the baby’s point
of view in these moments?
Recently, I was reviewing a toddler teacher’s documentation story describing two-year-old Sofia reading
a book to a stuffed animal. As I studied the photos,
it was obvious that Sofia knew a lot about reading
books. She had carefully placed the animal next to
her, purposefully holding the book and turning the
pages so the animal could see as she read. I was
curious to notice in one of the photos that Sofia was
Children care about what adults care about
In my own informal research about children’s points of
view about reading and writing, what jumps out at me
is not the children’s interest in pen, paper, and
letters, but their palpable joy in connecting with
people as they engage in these activities. The adults
on television with the babies who can read are smiling, clapping in celebration, and showing total, positive attention to the children during each interaction
with the flashcards. And it was apparent to me that
Sofia’s interest and skill in reading and writing came
from her desire to be a part of the important ‘real
work’ in her family as well as her mother’s pride and
attention. Children care about what the significant
adults in their lives care about and will do what we
think is important.
Make it meaningful
I’ve also discovered from my informal research that
children pay closer attention to the lines and
squiggles of literacy if they are connected to meaningful aspects of their lives. I playfully began to point to
and say the letters of my one-year-olds’ names on the
I experimented further by writing the children’s names
and saying the letters as I wrote when we were exploring markers. Again, the children would imitate me
making lines with the markers as they repeated the
letter sounds. But still, I wondered, did they do this
because they wanted to further a relationship with me
through this fun game, or were they connecting meaning to the marks and sounds and themselves?
After a few months of playing these games, I noticed
22-month-old Oona looking at a book that had the
word LOOK on the cover. At one point she glanced at
me and pointed to the two O’s and exclaimed “Oona.”
Of course I was all over her with excitement and
praise and eagerly told her dad the story when he
picked her up. A week later she was painting at the
easel, enjoying the movement of her arm and brush,
inadvertently making swirling, circle shapes with the
paint. She stopped; looked closely and pointed to the
big O on her paper and said, “Oona.”
I can’t say that my focus on letter sounds and writing
led to Oona’s discoveries, but it has been an engaging
process that I will continue studying. I also worry that
what I’ve described here could be perceived as overemphasizing literacy skills at this young age. That’s
not my intent. What I’ve learned from observing my
group of one year olds is that they are making
meaning all of the time. So if I make reading and writing a meaningful part of our daily lives, they are just
as interested in this as in everything else. I’ve come to
see that what we do together is a part of identity development, not just literacy development. Each child’s
face can be connected to their name, the sound of
it, the letters and how it is written, as well as to their
JULY/AUGUST 2009
family name, and their friends’ names. Making it
meaningful in this way is the most important element.
Adults have the power
Adults have all the power in children’s lives.
We are their window and access to safety,
comfort, and engaging experiences. Children
are smart enough to know this from the time
they are babies. They have laser-like attention
to what we care about and they want to imitate,
please, and be a part of what we say and do. If you
look at cultures around the world, children learn to do
what adults value and believe children can accomplish because this is what they focus on and take time
to teach children to do. But with this power comes
responsibility. Young children can learn about literacy
if that is what we care about and focus on with eager
attention in a playful, loving relationship. But we
should ask ourselves: What are we and they missing
when we spend so much of our time focused on literacy skills? What about the scientific discoveries and
magic in a puddle of water, the complex, creative work
of pretend play, the deep, spiritual connections from
time together in the natural world or the adventure
and sense of accomplishment in toddling up a hill?
Babies can read and write, but should they?
PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
43
EXCHANGE
Beginnings
Workshop
tags that identified their diaper bin as I was changing diapers. To my surprise and delight the children
eagerly took up this game, pointing and repeating
the sounds with me. I would read and point
“H-A-N-N-A-H, Hannah,” and then point to her photo
next to her name and say, that’s your name. Hannah
would follow me saying, “hch-hch-hch.” Most of the
children loved this game, even requesting it by calling
out a few sounds when we got to the diaper table. But
what did they really understand about the letters?
Did they see the connection between themselves and
these sounds and squiggles? My best guess was that
developmentally the work the children were doing at
the time was learning to speak and make sounds, so
this sound game was a perfect match for their interests and ability.
YOUNG CHILDREN AND WRITING
Children care
about what
the significant
adults in their
lives care about
and will do
what we think is
important.
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