Chapter 8: Contemporary Views of Research and Practice in Early Childhood Literacy Programs

During most of the past 60 years, young children’s literacy development has been considered a low priority in early childhood education. Over the last two decades researchers, theorists, and practitioners have reconstituted the field of literacy development in young children. Contemporary trends in reading instruction for young children vary dramatically from each other with each proponent affirming that their approach improves children’s reading performance. Studies that are carefully conceived are cited to support or reject each trend. The reality is that children learn to read in spite of any approach. There is no one approach to reading instruction that is significantly better than all others. Many approaches to reading instruction were shown to be effective more than three decades ago (Stauffer, 1967). This holds true today as well.