Impact of Illiteracy in Early Childhood Development

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“Phenomenologically, Donny and Timmy were not growing up in a literate environment. Although they lived in a home situation in a city situated in a country that contained many forms and functions for print, they did not experience it. They did not notice it around them; they did not understand its uses. Their world functioned without written language” (Purcell-Gates, 1997, p. 58).

Donny attended Head Start for one year then went to first grade. At that time, kindergarten was not required. It would probably have been beneficial for Danny to attend kindergarten, but, since his parents couldn’t read and nobody told him about it they had no clue. It’s obvious that the importance of early intervention wasn’t recognized as much in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. As of 2014, only 16 states required kindergarten attendance (U.S. Department of Education, 2014).

For a literate family, literacy begins in the home when parents read to their child and have books in the home. Reading aloud to children is a very important part of early literacy because it “encourages children to form a positive association with books and reading later in life” (Reach Out and Read, 2015). Both of Jenny’s parents could …show more content…

It is hard to believe that somewhere, just from exposure, she would have learned something. But, I think for a lot of people in poverty, they are mostly concerned with living and their basic needs. Unfortunately, reading isn’t one of them. “Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 44 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children” (The Literacy Project). When I was growing up, my parents were avid readers, thus I became one too. However, my twelve year old daughter is not. She has never read a book for pleasure and finds reading boring. It’s hard for me to fathom someone not having the desire to

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