Literacy for All: Supporting Every Learner as Readers and Writers Part 1
When we think about learning to read, it is easy to picture a child sounding out words, reading a simple book, or writing a sentence.
But literacy starts long before that!
Before learners become conventional readers and writers, they are developing emergent literacy—the early understandings and experiences that help them make sense of books, print, letters, sounds, and writing.
For some learners, especially those with significant disabilities or complex communication needs, educators may believe that certain skills must be in place before beginning literacy instruction.
They may hear questions like:
Does the learner know all of the letters yet?
Can they answer questions about a story?
Can they speak clearly enough to participate?
Can they hold a pencil?
Are they “ready” to read?
Let's consider a more useful question:
How can we give this learner meaningful access to reading and writing right now?
That shift, from readiness to access, can change everything.
What Is Emergent Literacy?
Emergent literacy is defined as “All of the reading and writing behaviors and understandings that precede and develop into conventional reading and writing.” (Sulzby, Branz, and Buhle(1993), in Erickson and Koppenhaver (2020))
A learner develops emergent literacy skills when they:
turn pages in a book
show interest in a favorite story
recognize familiar letters
notice words in the environment
scribble or make marks
select letters on a keyboard
listen for rhyming words
communicate about a story using speech, gestures, signs, or AAC
understand that print carries meaning
None of these skills develops in exactly the same way or on exactly the same timeline for every learner, and that is important. Emergent literacy is not a checklist that learners have to complete before they can move on to “real” reading and writing. These early experiences are literacy.
Emergent and Conventional Literacy
Think about literacy as a continuum.
A conventional reader and writer may decode unfamiliar words, read connected text with increasing fluency, understand what they read, and use conventional spelling and writing.
An emergent reader or writer is still building some of the foundational understandings that make those skills possible.
One way to think about whether a learner needs comprehensive emergent literacy instruction is to ask:
Does the learner identify most letters most of the time?
Does the learner actively participate during shared reading?
Does the learner have a reliable way to communicate and interact?
Does the learner understand that print carries meaning?
If some of these skills are still developing, that does not mean literacy instruction should wait.
It means the learner may benefit from comprehensive emergent literacy instruction.
Presuming Competence Does Not Mean Assuming Skills
Presuming competence is sometimes misunderstood. It does not mean pretending a learner already knows something that they have not yet learned. It means believing the learner is capable of learning and making sure our expectations, instruction, communication supports, and materials reflect that belief.
A learner who does not yet have a means of communication still has important ideas to share.
A learner who cannot hold a pencil is still capable of writing.
A learner who does not yet know their alphabet letters can still learn to decode text.
Our job is to provide the access, instruction, communication tools, and time that make access to literacy possible.
What Does the Science of Reading Tell Us?
The Science of Reading is often discussed in relation to phonics and decoding. Those are important, but they are only part of learning to read.
The Simple View of Reading describes reading comprehension as the combination of two broad areas:
word recognition or decoding
language comprehension
The Simple View of Reading
Scarborough’s Reading Rope expands on this idea by showing the many strands involved in skilled reading, including phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, background knowledge, language structures, and verbal reasoning. Our leaners needs rich language experiences. They need opportunities to talk about books, make predictions, learn new vocabulary, notice letters, explore sounds, and write. This happens through explicit instruction that addresses all the strands in the rope.
Comprehensive Literacy Instruction
Comprehensive emergent literacy instruction gives learners repeated opportunities to experience several areas of literacy, all guided by the Science of Reading.
That may include:
shared reading
independent exploration of books
alphabet instruction
phonological awareness
writing
communication throughout literacy activities
No single instructional experience does all of the work.
Reading the same favorite book again and again is valuable.
So is exploring letters.
So is playing with rhyme.
So is writing a message that nobody else can completely understand yet.
So is using AAC, gestures, sounds and facial expression to comment on a story.
All of these experiences help learners build their understanding of how language and literacy work.
Opportunity and Access Come First
One of the most important ideas in emergent literacy is also one of the simplest:
Learners become readers and writers by having opportunities to read and write.
We would not expect a child to learn to swim without getting in the water.
In the same way, we cannot expect learners to become readers and writers if they spend years completing prerequisite activities before being given meaningful access to books, letters, words, and writing.
Instead of asking whether a learner is ready, we can ask:
What is getting in the way of participation?
What support would make this activity more accessible?
Does the learner have a reliable way to communicate?
Can the learner physically access the materials?
Are we giving enough time to process and respond?
Are we providing instruction as well as opportunity?
That is where inclusive literacy begins. It begins with access. It grows through instruction, interaction, practice, and meaningful experiences.
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