No shoes : a study of children's concepts about print

Abstract

This dissertation examines the notion of emergent literacy as a developmental process that leads to reading and writing attainment. The study adopts Marie Clay's (2000a) 'Concepts About Print' task which assesses twenty-four items through the reading booklet No Shoes (2000b). The task explores children's knowledge and understanding of concepts about print at the two developmental ages of four and five. A one-year longitudinal-sequential study was conducted on a sample of 151 children attending independent schools. Children were tested on two occasions, January 2001 and January 2002, at the two respective ages of 4 - 4.5 and 5 - 5.5. The results establish literacy norms for four and five year olds attending Maltese independent schools, where a marked progress in attainment of items is observed after one year. The results also provide indicators of children with poor literacy achievement. The findings offer teachers guidance as to what are the expected literacy behaviours in children and hold implications for designing a well-balanced literacy programme that supports children's early literacy development.