[Reading-hall-of-fame] NIFL Report Confirms Professional Wisdom

[tsticht at znet.com]

January 9, 2009

New Report Confirms a Hundred Years of Professional Wisdom
About Parent’s Role in Developing Children’s Literacy Skills

Tom Sticht
International Consultant

A hundred years ago, Edmund Burke Huey published his classic work, The
Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading (1908) (reprinted by the MIT Press in
1968). In his book Huey passed on professional wisdom about reading and the
teaching of reading of his day.

Now, a century later, an extensive study of early childhood literacy
development has been published by the National Institute for Literacy
(NIFL) in Washington, DC. entitled “Report of the National Early Literacy
Panel: Developing Early Literacy: A Scientific Synthesis of Early Literacy
Development and Implications for Intervention” (2008) (for copies of this
report download at www.nifl.gov). In the extensive review of research on
children’s development of literacy in early childhood the report is
remarkably reminiscent of Huey’s ideas of 1908. To illustrate this
similarity, following are some extracts of paragraphs from some of Huey’s
book chapters along with the results from the Delivering Early Literacy
(DEL) report.

Huey: Chapter VI The Inner Speech of Reading And the Mental and Physical
Characteristics of Speech. “The child comes to his first reader with his
habits of spoken language fairly well formed, and these habits grow more
deeply set with every year. His meanings inhere in this spoken language and
belong but secondarily to the printed symbols. To read is, in effect, to
translate writing into speech." (Huey, 1908/1968, pp. 122-123).

Here Huey makes the point that in learning to read the child learns to
decode written language into his or her prior oral language. This means, of
course, that children with higher levels of oral language will become the
better readers when they learn to decode the written language back into
their spoken language.

DEL study: Following a study in which the DEL looked at how well various
measures of literacy (e.g., alphabet knowledge, etc. and measures of oral
language, including oral vocabulary and listening comprehension) the
authors concluded that along with other variables, “
more complex aspects
of oral language, such as grammar, definitional vocabulary, and listening
comprehension, had more substantial predictive relations with later
conventional literacy skills” p. 79. In these analyses, listening
comprehension of preschool children tended to correlate mildly with their
reading comprehension in kindergarten, first grade, or second grade.

Importantly, however, the authors seemed to misunderstand the relationship
to be expected between listening and reading comprehension  as children
enter school and progress up the grades. In a discussion of factors that
can influence the size of correlations, the authors say, “ Another factor
that can affect the size of the correlation is the length of time from the
assessment of the predictor to the measurement of the dependent variable.
Correlations would presumably be lower, on average, with longer intervals
of time in between assessments” p58.

But this is incorrect when it comes to understanding how reading maps back
onto listening comprehension as children go through the K-12 system. What
is expected is that in the early grades the correlation of reading with
listening comprehension will be low in the early grades because there is
not much variation in children’s ability to comprehend the written
language. As their skill increases with additional practice in the school
grades, the correlations of listening and reading should increase as those
with high listening skills before school become the better readers, while
those with low preschool listening skills once again gain access back to
their relatively low listening skills. This has in fact been substantiated
by considerable research (google: Sticht Auding and Reading: A
Developmental Model and download a free book on this relationship).

Despite the DEL studies misunderstanding of the relationships among
listening and reading comprehension, the study nonetheless confirms Huey’s
early statement about the relationship of oral and written language. It
also bears on another bit of Huey’s professional wisdom.

Huey: Chapter XVI Learning to Read at Home. "The secret of it all lies in
the parent's reading aloud to and with the child. The ear and not the eye
is the nearest gateway to the child-soul, if not indeed to the man-soul.
Oral work is certain to displace much of the present written work in the
school of the future, and least in the earlier years; and at home there is
scarcely a more commendable and useful practice than that of reading much
of good things aloud to the children" (p. 332 & 334).

DEL: After examining research on parents and teachers reading with children,
the authors of Developing Early Literacy conclude: “Despite any analytical
limitations, these studies indicate that shared-reading interventions
provide early childhood educators and parents with a useful method for
successfully stimulating the development of young children’s oral language
skills” (p. 163). “Overall, the evidence supports the positive impact of
shared-reading interventions that are more intensive in frequency and
interactive in style on the oral language and print knowledge skills of
young children” pp. 163-164” “It seems reasonable to proceed with the idea
that shared reading would help all or most subgroups of children, given the
inclusion in these studies of mixed samples of children from different
socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnicities, and different living
circumstances” p.164.

Again, a hundred years later, the wisdom of educators of the 19th and early
20th centuries is confirmed in the 21st century! And there is more
confirmation of this wisdom.

Huey: Chapter XV The Views of Representative Educators Concerning Early
Reading. "Where children have good homes, reading will thus be learned
independently of school. Where parents have not the time or intelligence to
assist in this way the school of the future will have as one of its
important duties the instruction of parents in the means of assisting the
child's natural learning in the home." (pp. 311-312)

DEL: The DEL researchers evaluated research in which “the instruction of
parents in the means of assisting the child’s natural learning in the home”
took place, as suggested by Huey. They reported, “Some educators consider
parent education an integral component of early childhood programs;
however, reports of their effectiveness have varied widely. Many of the
studies reviewed in this chapter were initiated with the assumption that
successful PI [parental involvement] programs help parents understand the
importance of their role as first teachers and equip them with both the
skills and the strategies to foster their children’s language and literacy
development” (p. 173). Following their research review, the DEL authors
concluded, “Overall, the results
indicate that home and parent intervention
programs included in these studies had a statistically significant and
positive impact both on young children’s oral language skills and general
cognitive abilities” ( p. 174).

Now, over a hundred years since Huey made his observations about oral
language and early childhood literacy education in the home, the Developing
Early Literacy report has provided an extensive review of hundreds of
research studies that place a scientific veneer on the solid professional
wisdom of literacy educators. What is needed now is the will to provide the
extensive adult education that will permit parents to develop their
children’s oral language skills which provide the foundation for skilled
reading comprehension.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net