The development of early literacy skills among a group of urban Sepedi-speaking children

by Schutte, Henrie?tte.

The study examined the typical development of early literacy in a group of typically developing preschool Sepedi first language children residing in Atteridgeville, by determining their performance on a protocol of early literacy tasks. The following aspects were included: written language awareness, narrative abilities, phonological awareness, letter name knowledge, grapheme-phoneme correspondence and literacy motivation. The performance of the participants on the various tasks was used to describe the early literacy development of the target population and to identify relevant risk criteria that may indicate delayed early literacy development in the target population. The performance of participants on these tasks differed from those of other participants in local and international studies, which underscores the necessity of culturally sensitive procedures for identifying delays in the early literacy development of children. The influence of factors such as the mother’s level of education, gender, participants’ level of engagement in literacy activities and participants' current academic performance on the development of early literacy skills were also investigated. Based on the results as well as other indications from the literature, possible risk factors for delayed early literacy development for this group are listed. Die studie het gefokus op die tipiese ontwikkeling van vroeë geletterdheidsvaardighede van ‘n groep tipiese voorskool Sepedi eerste taal kinders met normale ontwikkeling wat in Atterigdeville woon, deur hulle prestasie op ‘n reeks vroeë geletterdheidstake te bepaal. Die volgende aspekte is ingesluit bewustheid van geskrewe taal,, storieterugvertellingsvaardighede, fonologiese bewustheid, letternaam kennis, grafeem-foneem assosiasie en geletterdheidsmotivering. Die prestasie van die proefpersone op die verskillende take is gebruik om die vroeë geletterdheidsvaardighede van die teikenpopulasie te beskryf sowel as om relevante risikokriteria te identitifiseer wat kan dui op ‘n moontlike agterstand in die vroeë geletterdheidsvaardighede van die teikenpopulasie. Die huidige studie se deelnemers se prestasie op hierdie take het verskil van dié van ander deelnemers in soortgelyke plaaslike en internasionale studies, wat die noodsaaklikheid van die gebruik van kultuur-sensitiewe prosedures in die indentifisering van agterstande in vroeë gelettererdheidsontwikkeling van kinders beklemtoon. Die invloed van faktore soos ‘n moeder se opvoedingsvlak, deelnemers se geslag, deelnemers se huidige University of Pretoria etd – Schutte, H (2005) akademiese prestasie en deelnemers se vlak van betrokkenheid by geletterdheidsaktiwiteite, op vroeë geletterdheidsontwikkeling is ook ondersoek. Op grond van die resultate van die huidige studie sowel as ander gegewens uit die literatuur, word moontlike risiko faktore vir vertraagde vroeë geletterdheidsontwikkeling weergegee.