Families borrow the software, books, manipulative and activity guides for three weeks. At the early childhood level, we decided to structure the computer borrowing program with a focus on literacy. Emergent literacy is a term that has evolved over the last ten years and describes what is developing in children before they read and write that leads to literacy. Researchers explored why some children were coming to kindergarten knowing how to read and write by examining how those families and homes were different from those children coming to kindergarten with limited skills or without those skills. We know now that just as children crawl before they walk and babble before they talk, so to are they developing all kinds of skills and ideas about print before they read and write.
Literacy involves the interrelatedness of reading and writing.
Technology that is appropriately integrated into a children s learning has terrific potential to help children experiment and practice with meaningful projects involving early reading and writing and language activities. When children view books on the computer the notion of going from left to right and top to bottom is demonstrated. In some programs children can click on the word and hear the word spoken and sometimes see a picture related to its definition. With custom keyboards and software, children can experiment with letters and works, hearing these letters and words spoken as they create them. In addition to a focus on literacy, we wanted to design computer activities for families that would be both developmentally appropriate and would engage the families and the children in ways that supported interactive learning.