Implications of the National Early Literacy Panel for Early Braille Literacy PART ONE

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Implications of the National Early Literacy
Panel for Early Braille LiteracyPART ONE

• National Center for Family Literacy
• American Printing House for the Blind
• Visually Impaired Preschool Services

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Preliminary Findings of theNational Early
Literacy Panel
Update the final report of the National Early
Literacy Panel was released January 8, 2009 and
can be accessed at http//www.famlit.org/site/c.gt
JWJdMQIsE/b.2133427/k.2623/National_Early_Literacy
_Panel.htm

• Bonnie Lash Freeman
• Director Training/Special Projects
• National Center for Family Literacy

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Purpose of the Family Partnership in Reading
Project Instructional strategies will be
identified based on the scientific research that
will enable staff in family literacy programs and
early childhood programs to
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Purpose of the Family Partnership in Reading
Project

• Help young children develop the foundational
  skills they need to become good readers
• Equip parents to support their childrens
  literacy development
• Improve reading instruction for parents in
• family literacy programs

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National Early Literacy Panel Members

• Dr. Anne Cunningham, University of California at
  Berkeley
• Dr. Kathy Escamilla, University of Colorado at
  Boulder
• Dr. Janet Fischel, State University of New York
  at Stony Brook
• Dr. Susan H. Landry, University of TexasHouston

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National Early Literacy Panel Members

• Dr. Christopher J. Lonigan, Florida State
  University
• Dr. Victoria Molfese, University of Louisville
• Dr. Chris Schatschneider, Florida State
  University
• Dr. Timothy Shanahan (Chair), University of
  Illinois at Chicago
• Dr. Dorothy Strickland, Rutgers University

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Purpose of the NELP

• To
• Synthesize the research on early literacy
  development including parent and home program
  effects
• Deliver a final report of their findings

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Emergent Literacy

• Emergent literacy involves the skills, knowledge,
  and attitudes that are developmental precursors
  to conventional forms of reading and writing
• (Whitehurst Lonigan, 1998).

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Emergent Literacy

• Emergent literacy skills are the basic building
  blocks for learning to read and write.

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How to define emergent literacy

• Two conditions need to be satisfied for something
  to be considered an emergent literacy skill
• Must come before conventional
• literacy skills.
• Must be related to (i.e., predictive of)
  conventional literacy skills.

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What is a Research Synthesis?

• A research synthesis, also referred to as a
  research integration, research review, literature
  review, and a meta-analysis is a method of
  inquiry used to derive generalizations from the
  collective findings of a body of existing
  studies.

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Benefits of a Research Synthesis

• The aggregation of research allows for an
  accounting and weighing of research evidence in
  support of a research question.

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Limits to a Research Synthesis

• Limited most by the availability and quality of
  research on a particular question.
• Generalizations made from a research synthesis
  must stay within the bounds of the research.

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• Four Synthesis Questions

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• What are young childrens (ages birth through
  five years) skills and abilities that predict
  later reading, writing and spelling outcomes?
• 2. What programs and interventions contribute to
  or inhibit gains in childrens skills and
  abilities and are linked to later outcomes in
  reading, writing and spelling?

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• 3. What environments and settings contribute to
  or inhibit gains in childrens skills and
  abilities and are linked to later outcomes in
  reading, writing and spelling?
• 4. What child characteristics contribute to or
  inhibit gains in childrens skills and abilities
  and are linked to later outcomes in reading,
  writing and spelling?

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What skills constitute the domain of conventional
literacy skills?

• Receptively
• Decoding (accuracy and fluency)
• Reading Comprehension

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What skills constitute the domain of conventional
literacy skills?

• Although decoding is not all there is to skilled
  reading, it is a critical component.
• You can decode what you cannot comprehend, but
• you cannot comprehend what you cannot decode.

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What skills constitute the domain of conventional
literacy skills?

• Expressively
• Spelling
• Composition

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Strong Predictors

• Alphabet Knowledge
• Concepts About Print
• Phonological Awareness
• Invented Spelling
• Oral Language
• Writing Name/Writing
• RAN (Rapid Automatic Naming)

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Unique predictors from the multivariate
studies

• Alphabet Knowledge
• Phonological Awareness
• Rapid Automatic Naming
• Writing/Writing Name
• Phonological STM

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Summary of the 1 Primary Analyses
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Oral Language Subcategories Predicting Decoding
Comprehension
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Oral Language Defined

• In pairs, define the oral language terms.
• Chart your definitions.
• In small groups, discuss one strategy that you
  can use with children that matches the term you
  defined.
• Add to your chart

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Components of Oral Language

• What aspect of oral language is being examined
  matters a lot.
• Vocabulary is a weak predictor of later decoding
  and comprehension.
• More complex aspects of oral language, like
  grammar and definitional vocabulary, are very
  strong predictors of decoding and comprehension.
• Implications for early childhood programs.

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Components of Phonological Awareness

• Early forms of phonological awareness are strong
  predictors of later reading skills.
• Measures of rhyme are not the best indicator of
  how well children are acquiring this key
  pre-reading skill.

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Answering Question 2(Effects of
Interventions)Process Results
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• Category 1
• Helping Children Make Sense of Print--Cracking
  the Alphabetic Code and Teaching Letters and
  Words
• (PA, Letter Knowledge, Spelling, Phonics, Print
  Awareness, Visual Perceptual/Perceptual Motor)

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• Category 2
• Reading to and Sharing Books with Young Children
• Category 3
• Parent and Home Programs for Improving Young
  Childrens Literacy

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• Category 4
• Preschool and Kindergarten Programs
• Category 5
• Language Enhancement Studies

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Example Storybooks and Print Awareness

• Laura M. Justice and Helen K. Ezell
• 30 Head Start children, native English speakers
• Pretest-posttest control-group research design
• 8 week book-reading intervention small group
  reading sessions
• Experimental print focus
• Control picture focus

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Cont.

• Example print focus prompts
• Print Conventions Where is the front of this
  book? Show me the way I need to read.
• Concept of word Where is the first word on this
  page?
• Alphabet knowledge Does anyone see any letters
  in their name on this page?

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Cont.

• Results indicated that for three of the subtests
• Print Recognition
• Words in Print
• Alphabet Knowledge
• and in terms of the Phonological Awareness
  composite

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Cont.

• the children who participated in print focused
  reading sessions demonstrated significantly
  greater gains from pretest to post test compared
  to the children in the picture focused reading
  groups.

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Summary Overall Intervention Findings

• Evidence for significant effects of some (but not
  all) early childhood interventions in the
  promotion of literacy and literacy-related skills.

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SummaryOverall Intervention Findings

• Efforts to teach code-related skills are highly
  successful.
• Phonological Awareness Skills
• Alphabet Knowledge
• Concepts About Print
• Shared-book reading helps promote oral language
  skills.

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SummaryOverall Intervention Findings

• Evidence of a sizable impact of parent and home
  programs for the promotion of oral language
  skills.
• Relatively weak evidence for the effectiveness of
  undifferentiated preschool programs on reading
  achievement.
• Oral language interventions work.

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Implications for Early Childhood Education
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• Provides evidence for building childrens
  language and literacy skills in the preschool
  period.
• Identifies early skills that give children the
  strongest foundation for learning to read.

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• Provides guidelines for professional development
  (e.g., read-aloud practices, PA activities).
• Supports the importance of assessment of early
  literacy skills.

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• Informs decisions about developing or selecting
  the most appropriate curricula (e.g., content,
  intensity, sequence).
• Helps to guide the development of goals and
  selection of content for parent programs.
• Provides strong direction about future research.

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Implications of the National Early Literacy
Panel for Early Braille LiteracyPART TWO

• Suzette Wright APH Emergent Literacy Project
  Leader
• Pauletta Feldman VIPS Special Projects Coordinator

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• Preliminary findings of the National Early
  Literacy Panel (NELP ) point to early skills that
  predict favorable literacy outcomes for young,
  typically sighted print readers.

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NELP confirms the critical importance of the
years before school and the contributions of

• parents and the home environment
• teachers of preschoolers and preschool programs

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NELP

• Correlative information regarding early
  predictive skills and later
• decoding
• comprehension
• spelling

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NELP

• Guide for future research
• address observed gaps in existing research
• secondary and more detailed analyses of NELP data

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What does NELP indicate about

• skills needed by a preschooler who will read
  braille?
• the settings and circumstances in which those
  skills may be learned and developed?

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Can NELP findings guide us as we work to ensure a
foundation for literacy for children who will
read braille?
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NELP predictors

• Alphabet knowledge
• Concepts about print
• Phonological awareness
• Invented spelling
• Oral language
• Writing name/writing
• Rapid automatic naming (RAN)
• letters, digits, also things and colors

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Unique predictors

• Alphabet knowledge
• Phonological awareness
• Writing name/writing
• Rapid automatic naming (RAN)
• letters, digits, things and colors

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Oral Language

• Literacy is about connecting written words to
  spoken language that has meaning for the reader.

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Oral language--closely correlated subskills

• receptive language
• expressive language
• grammar
• definitional vocabulary

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Oral languagewhat to do?

• Ensure development of oral language skills is a
  part of work with children and their families
• Begin early complex language abilities are
  related to the childs ability as a 6-month-old
  to distinguish basic units of spoken sounds
  (Kuhl, 2002)

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Oral languagewhat to do?

• Build early communication skills through
  turn-taking
• Extend early language
• Ensure exposure to a wide range of concepts and
  related language

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Oral languagewhat to do?

• Read-aloudtalking about the story, unfamiliar
  words, and meaning asking questions

Dialogic reading http//www.readingrockets.org/ar
ticles/400
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Oral languagewhat to do?

• Be watchful for and share strategies to handle
  common problems areas
• misuse of pronouns
• echolalia
• use of questions

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Oral languagewhat to do?

• Talk with the child
• extended discourse
• - things that interest the child
• - using nouns and descriptive words
• - connecting words to experiences
• modeling proper grammar

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Oral languageimportance of home setting and
caregiver characteristics

• Hart Risley (1995) longitudinal study
• 42 families
• 9 mos. to 3 years
• amount/type of language spoken
• caregiver style

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Oral languageHart Risley study

• Linked to higher scores on language and
  intelligence tests at 4th grade
• frequently interacting with the young child
• inviting childs involvement
• following the childs lead
• using encouragement and a positive tone
• extended conversations

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Oral language--vocabulary

• Students who enter kindergarten knowing more
  vocabulary learn new vocabulary at twice the rate
  of students who begin with a lower vocabulary
  (Neuman, 2005).

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Vocabularywhat to do?

• Pairing language with related experiences
• Engaging in extended discourse, introducing new
  words
• Reading aloudexposure to rare words, broader
  vocabulary

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Phonological awareness (PA)

• PA appears to support decoding skills by helping
  a child notice letter-sound relationships and
  comprehension by helping the beginning reader
  recognize words as he blends sounds (McGee
  Richgels, 2000 Gillon Young, 2002).

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Phonemic awareness is important to success in
decoding and learning to decode leads to
further improvement in phonemic
awareness(Gillon, 2004)
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PA-closely correlated subskills

• phonemes
• subphonemes
• not rhymealthough rhyme may be important as a
  building block for more refined phonemic
  awareness skills . . .

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PAimportance for child with vi

• Study of students who used braille as their
  primary reading medium showed a strong
  relationship between the students' level of
  phonemic awareness and braille reading skills
  (Gillon Young, 2002)

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PAwhat to do?

• Talking with a child, from birth

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PAwhat to do?

• Play with words, rhymes, alliteration
• Daily conversation
• Read-aloud from books with word play/rhyme
• Songs and chants clapping/marching in time

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PAwhat to do?

• Play games that draw attention to beginning
  sounds
• Use objects to substitute for pictures
• Gather household objects with same beginning
  sound

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Alphabetic knowledge

• Unique predictor/strong relationshipaverage r
  for decoding was .5 indicating it accounts for
  25 of the variation in decoding performance

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Alphabetic knowledge-subskills
A B C

• Letter recognition
• Knowledge of letter-names
• Knowledge of letter-sound associations
• Letter-writing ability

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Alphabetic knowledge-subskills

• Although letter-name knowledge is correlated to
  later reading achievement, evidence suggests
  letter-sound knowledge accounts for more variance
  in reading achievement and delays (McBride-Chang,
  1999 Duncan Seymour, 2000).

A B C
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Alphabetic knowledge-subskills

• Research with typically sighted children shows
  letters and letter sounds should be taught at the
  same time to make the greatest contribution to
  reading (Whitehurst Lonigan, 2001)

A B C
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Alphabet knowledgewhat to do?

• Involve children
• in actively exploring
• letters and sounds
• together
• braillewriter
• letters and words
• brailled on cards
• braille labels around house

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Alphabet knowledgewhat to do?

• Find daily opportunities to involve the child in
  writing in braille, linking letters and letter
  sounds
• shopping lists
• notes/messages to family members
• calendar
• experience stories

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Alphabet knowledgewhat to do?

• Use household objects to create alphabet boxes
  and braille letter cards play sorting and
  matching games that draw attention to beginning
  sounds and the corresponding braille letter

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Alphabet knowledgewhat to do?

• Share appropriate alphabet books that
• provide exposure to braille letters (such as
  Alphabet Scramble, from APH)
• introduce beginning letter sounds with letters
  (such as Dr. Suesss ABCs)
• (books that depend too heavily upon pictures are
  less effective)

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Alphabet knowledgewhat to do?

• As you read-aloud occasionally point out familiar
  or key letters/sounds (print- or
  braille-referencing comments)

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Considerations/questions

• In pairs, share some of your thoughts and
  questions about--
• the role of alphabet knowledge,
  particularly letter/sound knowledge
• for preschoolers who will be braille readers.

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Considerations/questions

• Uncontracted braille may make more clear and
  explicit the relationship of how phonemes map
  on to letters (Ross, 2002).
• Braille contractions that represent phonemes (ch,
  sh, th) may be more easily decoded than their
  print counterparts
• Decoding words that include contractions of some
  common letter groups (ar ed en er in ing it
  ) may also be simpler

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Considerations/questions

• in print, there are also many occasions where
  there is not a single clear way a sound (phoneme)
  maps onto a print letter
• 26 print letters but more than 40 phonemes
• those 40 phonemes are represented by some 250
  different letters and combinations of letters

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Effectiveness of interventions

• The wide range of confidence intervals (with the
  exception of the tighter range for phonological
  awareness) indicates that within a single
  category of intervention some interventions were
  much more effective than others (Dunst, Trivette,
  Hamby, 2007)

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Effectiveness of interventions

• Some of the most interesting analyses lie ahead
  as data is disentangled, to discover which
  characteristics of interventions were associated
  with greatest effectiveness . . .
• Example Reading aloudinteractive reading, print
  referencing techniques

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TVI Reading teacher Early childhood
educator Braille transcriber Tech
guy Scholar Advisor/Coach Cheerleader
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References

• Baker, L., Scher, D. (2002). Beginning readers'
  motivation for reading in relation to parental
  beliefs and home reading experiences. Reading
  Psychology, 23, 239-269.
• Ball, E., Blachman, B. (1991). Does phoneme
  awareness training make a difference in early
  word recognition and developmental spelling?
  Reading Research Quarterly, 26, 49-66.
• Duncan, L. G. Seymour, P.H.K. (2000).
  Socio-economic differences in foundation level
  literacy. British Journal of Psychology, 91,
  145-166.
• Dunst, C.J.. Trivette, C.M. Hamby, D.W. (2007).
  Predictors of interventions associated with later
  literacy accomplishments. Center for Early
  Learning and Achievement CELLreviews, 1, 3.

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• Gillon, G.T. (2004). Phonological awareness From
  research to practice. New York The Guilford
  Press.
• Gillon, G. T., Young, A. A. (2002). The
  phonological-awareness skills of children who are
  blind. Journal of Visual Impairment Blindness,
  96, 38-49.
• Hart, B., Risley, T. (1995). Meaningful
  differences in the everyday experiences of young
  American children. Baltimore, MD Brookes.
• Justice, L.M. Ezell, H.K. (2004). Print
  referencing An emergent literacy enhancement
  strategy and its clinical applications.
  Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in
  Schools, 35, 185-193.
• Kuhl, P. (2002, June). Born to learn Language,
  reading, and the brain of the child. Paper
  presented at the Early Learning Summit for the
  Northwest Region, Boise, ID.

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• McBride-Chang, C. (1999). The ABCs of the ABCs
  The development of letter-name and letter-sound
  knowledge. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45, 285-308.
• McGee, L. M., Richgels, D. (2000). Literacys
  beginnings Supporting young readers and writers
  (3rd ed.). Boston Allyn Bacon.
• Neuman, S. (2005, May). Developmentally
  appropriate early literacy instruction
  Evidence-based solutions. Presentation at
  Institute 8 of the 50th Annual Convention of the
  International Reading Association, San Antonio,
  TX.
• Whitehurst, G. J., Lonigan, C. J. (2001).
  Emergent literacy Development from prereaders to
  readers. In S. B. Neuman D. K. Dickinson
  (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (pp.
  11-42). New York Guilford Press.

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The Pursuit of LiteracyOne Moms Story
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What I Feared

• Learning to read would be difficult for my son
• I wouldnt have access to appropriate materials
• I wouldnt be able to learn braille to help him

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What I Did

• Borrowed print/braille books from VIPS
• Worked with a blind adult to understand the
  basics of braille

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What I Learned

• My attitude was critical to my sons literacy.
• Concept development was a critical issue.

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• Talking to my son opened up the world to him.
• I could learn the basics of braille (and
  beyond!).

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Books always made great presents!
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• I could learn the basics of writing braille.
• We could have braille in our home through print
  braille books and braille labeling.

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A brailled birthday card
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(No Transcript)
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• My son could learn to love books and reading
  every bit as much as a sighted child.
• The public library could be a special place for
  my blind child, too.

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My son loved having a private library of his own
braille books.
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How VIPS Promotes Early Literacy for Families of
Young Visually Impaired Children
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• 1) VIPS has a lending library of
  print/braille books for VIPS families.
• 2) VIPS has offered braille classes over the
  years for VIPS families.

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• 3) VIPS produced the Power At Your
  Fingertips An Intro to Braille video and
  handbook for use by parents, regular ed
  teachers, and others to gain an overview of the
  braille alphabet, braille usage,
  contractions, and writing tools.

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• VIPS participates in the Read Books program
  through National Braille Press, signing up VIPS
  families to receive free book bags.
• 5) VIPS has undertaken two recent projects to
  support early literacy.

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The VIPS Getting In Touch with Reading Program
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The goals of this program are to

• Promote early literacy
• Foster appreciation for braille
• Encourage use of the library.

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Offers free bags of books and materials to VIPS
families.
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The bags include

• On the Way to Literacy Handbook for parents
  and teachers
• Two On the Way to Literacy Storybooks
• Two print/braille board books (Good Night
  Moon and One,Two, Three, by Sandra Boynton)

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• VIPS Power at Your Fingertips video and
  handbook, including slate and stylus
• Folder full of information about the public
  library, National Library Service for Blind
  Physically Handicapped and resources on where to
  obtain more print/Braille books

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Over 90 of parents have reported that using the
materials in the book bag has helped them

• Enjoy books more with their child
• Appreciate the importance of reading to their
  child
• Read aloud more often to their child
• Create literacy-rich environments at home for
  everyday activities

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• Know sources for print/braille books
• Feel more comfortable with braille
• Appreciate the importance of parents learning
  about braille
• Feel empowered to help their children with
  learning to read and with schoolwork when the
  time comes
• However, there was no positive impact on library
  usage.

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The program also has offered workshops on braille
and early literacy
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• The Intro to Braille workshop for VIPS parents
• 100 of participants rated the class, teachers,
  and materials as Excellent.
• Parent comments included these statements Im
  not afraid of Braille now, Thanks for making a
  daunting task less so, and I loved this class!

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• The Touch of Early Literacy Workshop
• Attended by special educators, regular ed
  preschool teachers, child care staff, parents,
  and some APH staff
• A day-long workshop held at APH
• Bonnie presented results of NELP
• Suzette talked about the implications of NELP
  results for early literacy for VI
• Participants also toured APH and made 4 tactile
  books

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• 100 of participants rated the workshop and
  materials as Excellent and said the workshop
  gave them a better understanding of
• Research on early literacy
• Emergent literacy/how to nurture it
• Concepts that children need for conventional
  literacy skills
• How concept development for a blind child differs
  from a sighted child
• How VI children use tactile pictures.

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• VIPS_at_Home Parent University

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The goals of the program

• Provide parents of young visually impaired
  children with needed information
• Provide parents with parent-to-parent support
• Reach the 70-80 of parents who do not attend
  regularly scheduled VIPS events

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Two of the four courses that have been developed
so far are particularly relevant here

• Emergent Literacy
• Power at Your Fingertips Into to Braille,
  based on the VIPS video of the same name

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Emergent Literacy
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Props for the course
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Power At Your Fingertips
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Props for the course
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• Each VIPS_at_Home Parent University course takes
  about two hours to complete.
• Courses are taught in the students (parents)
  home at times of their own choosing.
• Courses are taught by trained veteran parents who
  can also serve as buddies on an ongoing basis to
  offer information and support.

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Students receive a VIPS_at_Home Parent University
Binder and a handbook for each course they take.
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• Course pre- and post-tests show that students are
  obtaining the information and skills for which
  courses were developed.
• Parents who have taken the courses rate them very
  highly, saying that the courses, materials, and
  teachers are all excellent and that they would
  recommend them to others.