Harry S. Truman said that leaders are readers, and in our community, early literacy is the tool that seems to catapult these readers into leaders. However, many theories propose different philosophies relating to how literacy in children impacts them both negatively and positively. Alternatively, a positive impact is likely if deliberate attention and effort are made to expose a child to lifelong learning and a definite love for reading. The opposite, however, creates a negative outcome that leads to a lifetime of personal struggle and even decreases in earning potential later in life. Well-known Psychologists like Albert Bandura, an originator of Social Cognitive Theory, notes that children pay attention to some of those who model within their surroundings and encode their behavior.
Later, they may imitate the behavior they have observed noted by Mcleod (2016), thereby resulting in social learning. Further studies have shown more in-depth and provided information depicting the family’s relationship as a model and outcome. Bennett al (2002), in his study done regarding the family as educator model, spoke about parental reading beliefs, literacy activities, joint book reading, and parental education encompass mainly parental beliefs and practices that allowed children to learn through observation and exploration. The overall conclusion on this aspect of the study illustrates that a pre-schooler whose home or environment facilitates fewer opportunities for acquiring knowledge and skills about books and reading is at somewhat of a higher risk for reading difficulties than a child whose home environment enables a more abundant literacy domain.
In an article on Early Literacy: Policy and Practice in the Preschool Years (2013), Strickland & Riley-Ayers noted that early childhood professionals have long recognized the importance of language and literacy in preparing children to succeed in school. Early literacy plays a crucial role in enabling early learning experiences that research shows as a critical nexus with academic achievement, reduced grade retention, higher graduation rates, and enhanced productivity later in life.
On the other hand, some studies delved deeper into how new behavior is associated with a child’s future economic circumstances and how it impacts a person’s life in their adulthood stage. Vergunst et al. (2019) aimed to explain that behavioral issues such as inattention, hyperactivity, aggression, and opposition are associated with a range of adverse outcomes that include unemployment, lower earnings, and less wealth in early adulthood. Thus, it also proves to some extent in these studies that it is integral for a child to develop early literacy skills in the earlier stages of child development, as a means of nurturing them and teaching them how to adhere to a lifestyle that is more likely to grant them a more significant advantage.
Based on various studies, researchers have managed to speculate on several factors that can affect children who attend school at an early age. According to Evans (2006), “The primary sources of noise exposure among children are transportation, music, and other people. Noise typically measured as sound level with decibels, a logarithmic scale. A change in 10 decibels is perceived as approximately twice as loud. Children exposed to transportation noise (principally aircraft) manifest significant delays in reading”.
Kern & Friedman (2009) shared a varying view that early reading was associated with early educational success and was also associated with worse long-term outcomes, including less overall educational attainment, worse teenage and adult adjustment, and increased alcohol use.
Altogether, it is believed that monitoring a child reading skills from a young age helps to foster and expand their literacy development. Sonnenschein & Munsterman (2002) acknowledged in their research by asserting that reading stories to a child facilitate growth in the child’s vocabulary and knowledge of the world. It aids in familiarizing the child with a structure commonly found in books most frequently read in the early grades of school, demonstrating strategies for appropriating meaning from text and engaging in a fun interaction with a child.
If there is an area of proportionate disparity for children of color, it has to be education and early literacy in particular. While we engaged in an antiracist activity, this area demands more of our attention to level the plain field for black children. Black children born in low-income families are less likely to read fluently before sixth grade due to many issues that stemmed from underlying healthcare-related malady and the lack of early interventions resulting in boredom and hyperactivity in some cases.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services – because of cultural beliefs, historical factors, and long-standing mistreatment of minorities by health care and educational systems, minority parents may additionally feel there is less value in interacting with the healthcare and educational systems to obtain Development and Behavioral conditions treatment for their child. Minority parents may be more likely to distrust medicine in general and mental health treatment. For example, a survey of 501 caregivers of children found that African American parents viewed antidepressants in children as riskier and less beneficial than other parents. Additionally, minority parents may also have more significant concerns about the stigma attached to seeking mental health services. This stigma may be compounded because many parents believe that mental health treatment is ineffective or unhelpful.
In a survey of 235 low-income families of school-age children, Richardson et al found that African-American parents are twice as likely as white parents to expect disapproval from family members and to be embarrassed about seeking mental health care for their child, are twice as likely to perceive mental health professionals as untrustworthy and disrespectful, and are three times more likely to expect poor care. Likewise, in a mental health clinic setting serving a predominately African-American and Latino population, McKay et al showed that many parents expressed skepticism regarding mental health care’s potential helpfulness. This skepticism about mental health care benefits was associated with about half the odds of attending mental health appointments Other studies have shown that Latino and other minority parents do not bring their children into care because providers do not understand cultural differences, do not put forth the effort to get their child services, have negative attitudes toward minorities, or treat minority families poorly. In many cases, these beliefs may be justified because the mental health system does not perform well for minorities and other under-served families.
References
Bennett, K. K., Weigel, D. J., & Martin, S. S. (2002). Children’s acquisition of early literacy skills: examining family contributions. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17(3), 295–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0885-2006(02)00166-7
Definition of literacy | Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Www.Dictionary.Com. Retrieved July 16, 2020, from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/literacy
Early Literacy: Policy and Practice in the Preschool Years. (2013, November 7). Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/article/early-literacy-policy-and-practice-preschool-years
Evans, G. W. (2006). Child Development and the Physical Environment. Annual Review of Psychology, 57(1), 423–451. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190057
Kern, M. L., & Friedman, H. S. (2009). Early educational milestones as predictors of lifelong academic achievement, midlife adjustment, and longevity. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(4), 419–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.025
Mcleod, S. (2016, February 5). Social Learning Theory. Simple psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
Sonnenschein, S., & Munsterman, K. (2002). The influence of home-based reading interactions on 5-year-olds’ reading motivations and early literacy development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17(3), 318–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0885-2006(02)00167-9
Vergunst, F., Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D., Algan, Y., Beasley, E., Park, J., Galera, C., Vitaro, F., & Côté, S. M. (2019). Association Between Childhood Behaviors and Adult Employment Earnings in Canada. JAMA Psychiatry, 76(10), 1044. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.1326