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This text-based course is a written transcript of the live event, "Literacy Development in Infants and Toddlers: Research Findings”, presented by Dr. Margot Kelman on January 5, 2012.
>> Amy Natho: I would like to welcome you to our first SpeechPathology.com e‑learning expert seminar for 2012 and it is titled, “Literacy Development in Infants and Toddlers: Research Findings” by Dr. Margot Kelman. My name is Amy Natho and I'll be your moderator for this online course. Margot Kelman, Ph.D. CCC‑SLP, is a speech‑language pathologist in private practice and clinical supervisor at Wichita State University. Her interests are in early childhood speech, language and literacy development. Dr. Kelman currently supervisors the Toddler Emergent Language and Literacy Playgroup at Wichita State University. So welcome, Margot. We're so happy to have you here with us today.
>> Margot Kelman: I'm delighted to be here today to talk to you about literacy development in infants and toddlers. I absolutely love this age group. They're just a wonderful group of young children that you can watch and see them exploring and learning. Today's presentation is an overview of research in the area of literacy development for children birth to 3 years of age - so this is part 1. Mainly it will just be talking about research findings and some information for you in that area. My next presentation is part 2 and that is scheduled for next week and that will focus on best practices for the SLP. That presentation will cover the practical application of incorporating literacy skills in your speech and language interventions. How many of you currently have infants and toddlers on your caseload? A few of you do. For those who are not working with infants and toddlers at the moment, how many of you see yourself working with the birth to 3 population in your future? Okay, a few of you. Lastly one more question. How many of you are parents of children that are either 3 years of age and younger or we can really say 5 years of age and younger? Okay.
Literacy Facts
Before I start, I want to begin with some facts about literacy and these are from the ASHA website.
- Literacy problems in the United States have reached the point of being considered a major public health problem with serious health and educational consequences.
- One out of every five of our nation's school children suffer from reading failures.
- A majority of all poor readers have an early history of spoken language deficits. And, they have reported that 73% of children who are poor readers have had speech and language problems.
- A child who is not a fluent reader by fourth grade is likely to struggle with reading into adulthood. So, poor reading and life skills have an impact.
- 75% of school dropouts report reading problems and at least half of adolescents and young adults with criminal records have reading difficulties.
