Theme-Based Learning for Literate Language. Article by Ashley Bourque-Meaux

This article by Ashley Bourque-Meaux, Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders College of Health & Human Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University, US, is in the latest issue of ACEI's e-newsletter for the child care and preschool education community.

The preschool years are a time for children to explore and develop a foundation for language and literacy. On the journey to reading, they begin to recognize that the things they say can be manipulated and represented in a visual way. During this time, children are beginning their journey to literate language—the overlapping area between language and literacy. These early experiences with print can be an exciting time of exploration as children begin making connections between the words they hear and the visuals and print they see around them. Prior to this, the development of literate language relies on rich oral language experiences. This foundation is then extended to more complex language structures to support reading. Teachers can use storybooks as thematic units to support and promote this literate language journey…

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