Still Searching

Hello Friends!

I am still researching information on environmental literacy. I had an ipifany that maybe I am using the wrong words to search. I am going to try some different searches as I am not having the greatest luck.

However, I did find some interesting quotes from one source on the how important enviornment is to a child's developing literacy.

1) “Environmental events occurring during the young childhood years and the abilities of the preschool child are key determinants of later development,” (p. 816).

I agree with this statement. For support, I turn to Erik Erickson who outlined the stages of Social-Emotional Development. The first stage is trust versus mistrust, which is probably the most important thing a child can learn: Am I in a safe enviornment or am I unsafe? This stages takes place during the child's first two years of life. The second stage is autonomy versus guilt (2-4 years old). This stage is built off of the prior stage and if children feel trust then then will most likely have autonomy. For more info on this see the link to the side on Social-Emotional Development.

2) “Family environmental factors contribute to preschool cognitive and behavioral functioning…which in turn contribute to subsequent school achievement and literacy. Hence, family environmental factors may be regarded as indirect determinants of literacy, while cognitive-behavioral and educational factors may be regarded as its proximate determinants,” (p. 817).

This quote takes a simliar spin on environmental literacy but adds a new idea. It basically says that yes, environment does influence literacy indirectly. However, it is not the be all and end all because there are many students who rise above their environment to succeed.

Wow! This post ended up being a lot longer than I thought.

The quotes were cited from: Early Warning Signs of Functional Illiteracy: Predictors in Childhood and Adolescence Nazli Baydar; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn; Frank F. Furstenberg Child Development > Vol. 64, No. 3 (Jun., 1993), pp. 815-829

*See link list to the side for the URL

Thanks for reading :)