Excerpted from Beginning Literacy with Language: Young Children Learning at Home and at School, edited by David K. Dickinson, Ed.D., & Patton O. Tabors, Ed.D.

Copyright © 2001 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Parents and early childhood educators want children to become good readers and writers. They are fully aware of how crucial reading and writing skills are to school success. Parents and early childhood educators may not know how important language development is in preparing preschool-aged children for later literacy development, however. The purpose of this book is to provide information to parents and early childhood educators about the connections between young children's early language development and later literacy development so that they can support and facilitate young children's language skills both at home and in early care and education.

The material in this book is based on the findings of a research project, the Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development, carried out since 1987 by a collaborative research team composed of members from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Tufts University, Clark University, and the Education Development Center of Newton, Massachusetts. Researchers in this study have collected data in the homes, preschools, and elementary school classrooms of a group of children from families of low socioeconomic status, starting when the children were 3 years old. This book reports on the information from the preschool and kindergarten time period — a period that we have found makes crucial contributions in preparing these children for their later literacy achievement.

This book not only presents the findings from this research study but also makes them come alive by presenting examples of the types of language that were audiotaped during visits to the homes and classrooms of children....

Understanding the role of language in fostering children's later literacy skills has important implications for all children, but it is of special significance for those who work with families of low socioeconomic status. Children growing up in these families are more likely to have difficulties with learning to read than children from families of middle socioeconomic status, and these gaps in performance begin to appear as early as kindergarten. . . . These early disadvantages can have serious long-term effects because children who experience reading difficulties in the middle grades are more likely than children without reading difficulties to drop out of school later in their academic careers....

Though many studies have confirmed the existence of quantitative differences in the language experiences of children from low- and middle-income families, the Home-School Study presents an in-depth view of how parents and children in families of low socioeconomic status actually talk together in a variety of settings and in ways that do or do not support children's language growth....