Miranda Gillyard-Gilley
Early Childhood Educator
Founder and CEO of Arise Horizon Inc.
What is emergent literacy?
Emergent literacy is a term that means getting ready to read.
Newborns come into the world ready to process language! In the first three years of a baby’s life, they become more aware of the language we use. Each time we read, talk and sing with them we help build their understanding of language. Reading aloud helps them learn how text works and helps to increase their language and literacy skills as they grow. The National Center for Education Statistics, in a survey, found that about one in five residents of Jefferson County are at or below the most basic literacy level. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University, in a paper in 2004, found that one in three children in the city were born to mothers who lacked a high-school degree.
The early phase, before children are reading on their own, is called the emergent literacy phase. Emergent literacy leads to early literacy.
Emergent literacy skills
Children learn many important things during the emergent literacy phase, including:
• Vocabulary building
• Learning how our language works and how to use language to tell stories, share ideas and ask questions
• Learning how to hold books
• Learning to identify different types of books like storybooks, fact books, poetry, cookbooks, etc.
• Learning to write by drawing and scribbling
• Playing with the sounds of language through songs, rhymes and tongue twisters
• Building knowledge of the world around them
• Understanding letter-sound connections
• Developing a love of literacy (reading and writing)
Why is emergent literacy important?
Reading aloud to babies is the single most important thing we can do to help prepare them for reading and learning. That’s because emergent literacy is the foundation on which all future learning happens. The stronger a child’s literacy foundation, the stronger all future learning will be.
Every time we read, talk, and sing with babies, we are creating strong bonds and building their foundation for learning and understanding. These connections have a positive impact on children for the rest of their lives! What we already know:
Reading aloud to children, starting at birth, helps build brain connections during the first five years of their life. This is the time in which 90 percent of a child’s brain development happens. (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University)
The number of words a child knows when they start kindergarten is a predictor of their future success in school and in life. (Read Aloud 15 Minutes)
More than one in three American children start kindergarten without the skills they need to learn to read. (American Academy of Pediatrics)
Reading aloud to children helps associate books and reading with people they love, which motivates them to read more. (Healthy Children)
Reading, talking, singing, and playing with young children helps to improve their language, literacy, social skills, and emotional skills. It also helps to secure the bond between parent/caregiver and child. (American Academy of Pediatrics)
A person’s ability to read lowers their risk of poverty, improves their chances of employment, increases social inclusion, and leads to a healthier life. (The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)
Adults with low literacy skills often struggle to access and use the healthcare system for themselves and their young children. This can cause risks of developmental and health issues. (Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy)
Arise Horizon Outreach founder, Miranda Gillyard-Gilley is a one-person literacy campaign working to build strong readers in inner-city Monticello by celebrating the written word. In the span of the next five years, her nonprofit, Arise Horizon, wants to distribute more than 5000 books to help boost the reading lives of youths, many of them in grade school.
“I want to raise public awareness about the importance of early literacy in my neighborhood or community,” says Gilley. “I will begin the program with the thought of teaching my great-nephews and nieces about early literacy and l wanted to learn more about local programs in Monticello that could help them become better readers. I found a few resources but not many. I have been an early childhood educator for over 20 years and l want to foster early literacy as early as possible. For many families, getting a child to a branch of the Jefferson Public Library is difficult, especially in the summer months, because of schedules and transportation concerns. But the Arise program will go right to neighborhoods… I knew if I began to pass out books in the inner city that children could begin on the path to becoming lifelong learners and readers in Jefferson County.”
Your support is paramount in solving this issue and helping our community! We are looking for partners to help achieve our mission. All donations are welcome and greatly appreciated and will be used to help purchase books to support early literacy in our toddlers, preschoolers and elementary students.
If you are interested in donating to this worthy cause for our community and early learners, please don’t hesitate to contact Miranda Gillyard-Gilley at mmg197734@gmail.com, or (850) 212-8839.