Such ideas should be declared false on their face. I have a clarity of speech equal to mud on glass, yet I learned to read at an early age. Some of my friends shared the same boat of early childhood experiences, yet they are able to read and write. If my teachers and therapists had accepted such restrictive concepts of literacy instruction, you probably wouldn't be reading this newsletter today. Back to top Emergent Literacy Educators have a much broader view of literacy than they used to.
Emergent literacy takes a much broader view of a person's interest in text.
It looks at both reading and writing, viewing those scribbles on a page a toddler makes and his nonsensical vocalizations as he turns the pages of a book as part of a continuum of literacy abilities. The developmentally disabled adult is pleased when she learns how to hold a magazine right side up. Researchers now consider this a useless question. Pre-literacy and literacy are intertwined. Any attempt to separate the two is an impossible task.