CREATIVE APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY LITERACY: EXPERIENCES FROM CROATIA

Literacy is one of the basic skills that represent an important cultural aspect. It is necessary to acquireinformation about different areas of human activity and is essential for education and the acquisition of new content.The development of early literacy is significantly influenced by three factors: adult encouragement, adult readingrole models, and exposure to appropriate reading materials. As a result, the role and importance of reading andtalking with the child are cited as important activities that adults engage in with children in the early literacy field,and numerous campaigns targeting reading aloud and reading with children speak to this. Parents are increasinglyreceiving training in early literacy, while early childhood educators, who are trained to promote children's readingskills during their training, are increasingly using numerous early literacy activities in their work. The number ofeducators who use picture books in their groups as a stimulus to promote early literacy is growing, using picturebooks not only as a means but also as a goal in developing creativity and pre-reading skills.This paper presents real-world examples of approaches to promoting early literacy in Croatian educationalinstitutions, based on research conducted as part of the project "Picture Gallery in Kindergarten and PrimarySchool", sponsored by the Faculty of Teacher Education University of Rijeka and the partner Faculty forEducational Sciences of Jurja Dobrila University in Pula. The project investigated the use of picture books as astimulus for a creative approach to the development of early reading skills. 363 teachers from all over the Republicof Croatia participated in the research. The research was conducted online in the form of a questionnaire. The paperhighlights and analyzes the results in relation to the use of picture books as a stimulus for a creative approach toearly literacy development. It also gives examples of good practice selected in the implementation of theinstitutional project "Let us read fun - a creative approach to reading in early and preschool age", conducted at theFaculty of Educational Sciences of Jurja Dobrila University in Pula.The main goals for which educators use picture books in pedagogical work with children are familiarization withbooks, development of a reading culture, love for books and reading, development of reading preparation skills,active listening and communication. The benefits that educators see in using picture books are also mentioned.Challenges cited by educators include the fact that a lot of effort and work must be put into creating a reading ritualand getting an individual child interested in reading and listening to stories, or the unwillingness of some parents touse picture books at home in the family setting. Some of the educators mentioned creating their own picture bookwith the children as a challenge. Therefore, the paper includes examples of best practices related to the creation ofpicture books in different early childhood and preschool education settings, as well as presentations of long-termproject activities that involve both parents and the local community in the creative process. It also presents theprocess of creating a picture book as an activity that can be done in a shorter period of time just within aneducational group or as a short activity in one day.