What is Literacy to a Preschooler?

     An interesting article written by John T. Guthrie, "Preschool literacy learning," fascinated me for many reasons. After reading this article, I realized that at young ages, children are able to identify certain aspects of literacy. By the time that many children reach first grade, they are able to make the connection between a book and its use for reading. Guthrie states, "One-half or more of these preschool children knew that 'a book is to read.'" As I reader further on in this article, I was fascinated to learn that the majority of these children were able to identify the front of the book, and some of the children were able to identify pictures in the book. Where do these capabilities come from? I asked the same question, and just had to read on....

     Catherine Snow wrote in the Harvard Educational Review, reported a study of a child between the age of 18 and 36 months. It was interesting to read about Snow's report because she stated several connections between different aspects of a child's learning. Guthrie states, "Snow's thesis was that learning to speak and learning to read at home have significant parallels." Just like the ability to speak, the ability to read is a process that needs to be learned. Guthrie's article goes on to explain more of Snow's interesting facts. There are several ways to teach a child important aspects of literacy. As proven, a young child is capable of understanding what a book is, what it is used for, and the different parts of the book, such as the front, back, and page. 
     I enjoyed reading this article because it stated several key terms. As a future teacher, I think it is important to become familiar with this vocabulary. For example, I wanted to recognize an important term in which Snow uses to defend her report, semantic contingency. The article states, "Drawn from language acquisition research, the term semantic contingency refers to the occurrence in which the adult continues a topic introduced by the child, or adds new information to a statement made by the child, or answers questions posed by the child." So, in reality, it is important for a parent to further develop their child's knowledge on literacy. For example, if a child identifies that there are two separate pages of a book, it is important to show the child that if they flip the page, there just so happens to be more pages of that book. It's little actions, such as the example I just stated, that can further develop a young child's basic understanding of literacy. As a future teacher, I think it is important for children to learn about literacy at a young age. Most importantly, literacy will always be incorporated into the student's learning. So, why not encourage this knowledge of literacy from a young age?