Literacy and Starting School: Views of Parents and Early Childhood Staff and Issues for Transition

A recent study of literacy practices in early childhood services prior to school entry (Makin, Hayden, Holland, Arthur, Beecher, Jones Diaz & McNaught, 1999) revealed that, for both parents and early childhood staff, school entry often looms as a threat to children's confidence and self-esteem rather than as an opportunity for individual development. This can result in staff introducing inappropriate practices in preschools and day care centers in order to prepare children for the practices they are expected to encounter when they start school. It can also result in parents putting pressure on early childhood staff to become more like school and putting pressure on their children to engage with formal academic tasks. It is suggested that an important element of successful transition in literacy is an increase in shared understandings between families, early years teachers and prior to school staff about key practices that support early literacy. Kindergarten teachers and school principals need to know more about what happens in the preschool years and to plan a transition in early literacy practices in which it is the kindergarten classroom that initially adapts to the children's previous experiences rather than having the preschool reflect the school. (Author/RS)