Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate ...

← Back to document page

Adopted May 1998A joint position statement of the International Reading Association and theNational Association for the Education of Young ChildrenLearning to Read and Write: Developmentally AppropriatePractices for Young ChildrennaeycCopyright 1998. All rights reserved. National Association for the Education of Young children . In Young children , July 1998, 53 (4): 30 16th Street, , Washington, DC 20036-1426 l 202-232-8777 l 800-424-2460 l FAX: 202-328-1846Learning to read and write is critical to a child s success inschool and later in life. One of the best predictors of whether achild will function competently in school and go on to contrib-ute actively in our increasingly literate society is the level towhich the child progresses in reading and writing.

Children take their first critical steps toward learning to read and write very early in life. Long before they can exhibit read-ing and writing production skills, they begin to acquire some basic understandings of the concepts about literacy and its func-tions. Children learn to use symbols, combining their oral lan-

  Children, Very