Preschool reading and writing: literacy and predictors

Abstract

The present paper project attempts to enter a new "value" to the Pre-primary education, in relation to learning processes of basic reading and writing skills. Numerous studies, including those of Ferreiro and Teberosky (1985), show that reading and writing learning process is done slowly, in children aged 3 years and older, through a process of review and restatement of the language code made by the child on the basis of the environmental stress surrounding him. Chaney (1992) states that many preschoolers show the presence of a Rudimentary Awareness. Consequently, they are able to recognize rhymes and alliterations, thus owning a certain level of phonological awareness level. This skill is developed further, if it is enhanced properly. Therefore, the act of learning to read and to write is constituted as a natural, cognitive process, defined Emergent Literacy or Emerging Literacy, in which the child formulates hypotheses regarding red and written material, which are compared time after time to the linguistic stress coming from the adult context and are measured according to this context. Consequently, possible "learning predictors" are needed to be identified to facilitate learning process and to prevent potential learning disabilities. In particular, this research arises two objectives. On one hand, it is intended to check that children attending pre-primary school aged 4 and 5 years, fulfil prerequisites to acquire basic Italian language skills and to face learning successfully (Hypothesis 1); on the other hand, the research aims to analyse whether enhancement activities (training of prerequisites) are effective in increasing basic language skills, especially those of people having low performance profiles (Hypothesis 2). Since some studies show the existence of a positive correlation between literacy level and economic growth measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), by highlighting how the literacy affects economic productivity, it is really needed to intervene on basic reading and writing skills, in order to give a "depth change" to the various spheres of human life, so that men may learn to perceive the knowledge (reading and writing) as an essential tool for individual and collective growth.