Early childhood

This study looks at preschool speech and language impairments and the role they play in a child’s phonological awareness, the awareness of the sound structure of spoken words. Phonological awareness is considered a reliable predictor of later reading ability.

This literature review was prepared by the TD Economics division of TD Bank Group.

There is a great deal of compelling evidence on the benefits of early learning, the authors point out. Not only do high-quality early childhood education programs benefit children, they also have positive impacts on parents, and on the economy as a whole.

The authors of this booklet begin by pointing out that parents are their children’s first, and most important, teachers and go on from there to explain how to create a positive learning environment for youngsters from birth to kindergarten age.

In November, 2008, the National Dialogue on Youth Resilience was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was the culmination of a partnership between eight provinces and territories and The Learning Partnership (TLP), a national charitable organization founded in 1993 and dedicated to championing a strong public education system in Canada.

Current and emerging research is creating a greater understanding of the importance of the preschool years for early language and literacy development, the authors of this paper note. Society is beginning to learn which activities, tools, or programs can be used in the home or in child-care centres to give young children an advantage as they move into literacy.

This paper outlines both the methodology used by the authors to develop a statistical measure to estimate how ready for school Canadian preschoolers are, and the information gained through the analysis of relevant statistics from the provinces for the years 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004.

The Power of Reading program, developed by ABC Life Literacy Canada in partnership with Energizer Canada, includes five picture books for young children to read with their parents.

In this book, a small boy discovers many new and unusual things when his father takes a different route home after a visit with his grandmother.

This manual provides the information needed to plan a series of bookmaking workshops for parents. During the workshops, parents create books for their children; learn about the qualities of good children’s books; and discover strategies they can use at home to promote reading.

The manual offers instructions for preparing five different books, with lists of required materials and templates for shapes required for each book.

Changes in society over the past several decades have made it increasingly rare for Canadian children to have long, uninterrupted blocks of time to play indoors and outdoors, by themselves or with friends. At the same time, growing numbers of children spend substantial time in structured educational and recreation activities.

This document focuses on the importance of oral language development and offers tips for parents to use to help their children develop language skills. The authors explain that children develop language over time and tell parents what to expect at each stage from infancy through the preschool years.