The ECA position statement review process

As part of this work, the ECA National Council has commissioned a working party to review the current range of ECA policies. The working party, made up of members from all state/territory branches, will assess each policy according to their relevance, their usefulness to members, and their capacity to assist in effective advocacy for young children.

The position statements will be reflective of the vision of the organisation and our mandate to be a voice for children.

ECA position statement: Language and Literacy

National Literacy & Numeracy Plan

Early Years Literacy Profile

• Literacy is critical to a child’s success in life.
• Developing literacy for every child is a shared responsibility of families, communities and early childhood programs which cater for children from birth to eight.
• Literacy is socially and culturally constructed and constantly changing.
• Children develop literacy in ways related to the language and cultural practices of their home and family context.
• Language and literacy learning in an interactive process which takes place through interactions in meaningful events and within the relationship between the participants.
• Language learning is holistic – each mode of language supports and enhances overall language development.
• Language develops through the active engagement of the learners.
• Literacy is the result of continual interplay of development and learning, therefore a range of individual variation is to be expected in the rate and pace at which children gain literacy skills.

Policy Principles

• Be aware that support for first language is fundamental to literacy development.
• Be aware that our local communities consist of people from vastly diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds and with an equally diverse range of personal experiences.
• Work together to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of learning experiences for children.
• Recognise that children enter early childhood programs having begun to learn to communicate and make sense of their experiences at home and in their communities.
• Be aware of the developmental continua of language and literacy and learning.
• Be aware of the diverse pathways to English literacy for children of non English speaking background.
• To respect the child’s home language and culture and use that as a base on which to build and extend children’s language and literacy experiences.
• Identify and meet the particular needs of children from language backgrounds other than Standard Australian English who are in our care.
• Understand that competence is not tied to any particular language, dialect or culture.
• To recognise that the monitoring of children’s progress in language and literacy is a shared responsibility.

• Opportunities to observe and actively participate in a wide variety of language experiences – to be immersed in oral, written and viewed texts
• To receive many demonstrations and be explicitly shown how oral, written and viewed texts are constructed and used.
• A supportive environment in which to use and practice their developing language understandings and abilities for functional, realistic, meaningful purposes.
• Responsive, relevant, timely, appropriate feedback from parents, caregivers, peers and teachers
• Appreciation and encouragement of their attempts to acquire literacy skills and the freedom to approximate – mistakes are part of learning.
• Time and opportunity to manipulate and play with language and to adapt the oral, nonverbal and written structures of language to different forms and social contexts
• Make decision about their own language learning.

Implementation Strategies

• Families be encourage to recognise the fundamental role they play in their child’s literacy and language development including telling stories, reading to, listening to and talking with children.
• Within the care/educational setting individual children’s skills and needs are provided for
• The oral language a child brings to the care/educational setting be respected and used as the basis for further development.
• Frequent opportunities be provided for active engagement in oral language for social interaction, thinking and learning.
• A wise range of literature including fiction, non fiction and poetry be readily accessible in prior to school and school settings.
• Explicit teaching of the language skills and understandings needed for literacy to be provided as part of a holistic approach to literacy development.
• Media and technology be used interactively to provide children with a broad perspective of society.
• Reading is viewed as an enjoyable, informative non competitive activity.
• Children’s attempts to write be valued and spelling approximations be viewed as developmental pathways.
• Assessment and monitoring of children’s progress be an integral, ongoing part of the teaching/learning process.

Background Material