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EARLY LITERACY IN CROATIAN: SPECIFICITY IN THE PRESCHOOL PERIOD

M. Lencek, J. I. Pavlisa

Abstract

Early literacy, as a foundation for future literacy skills and academic performance, is the actual research trend. This developmental face is a source for the results of formal literacy (Scarborough 2009) and a framework of academic performance (in tests like PISA, PIRLS and others). Besides the contribution to the academic success, the interest for early literacy stems also from the need to recognize children at risk for reading disability and dyslexia (Catts, Petscher, Schatschneider, Sittner Bridges & Mendoza, 2009) and from the need to evaluate prevention programs. In Croatia, the awareness about the importance to monitor and foster early literacy is rising. But, there is still no general program for encouraging prereading and prewriting skills. Furthermore, there is no exact data about the milestones of early literacy skills. The aim of this pilot study is to investigate the level of knowledge related to early literacy in 80 participants- 20 three-year-old, 20 four-year-old, 20 five-year-old and 20-six-year old typically developing children regarding the features of Croatian and Latin alphabet. Early literacy skills were assessed by Protocol for assessing early literacy (Len?ek & Užarevi?, 2016) - focused on the assessment of concept of print, emergent reading, tracing and by subtests phonological awareness and letter naming - part of standardized Test for assessing prereading skills (Kuva? Kraljevi? & Len?ek 2012). The results pointed to a clear developmental path – the increase in the chronological age is followed by the better performance on all the task assessing early literacy. Statistically significant differences were captured between 3-year and 4-year old children and between 5-year and 6-year old children on all the used subtests. But, the increase is not uniform for all age groups and on the all subtests. The performance of all participants on the variable emergent literacy draws attention because the results are rather low compared to the other research findings. The qualitative analysis will be elaborated in the context of Croatian language, alphabet, preschool organization and compared with the results from other languages. In general, results remind on the necessity to create programs for encouraging early literacy as well as strategies of indirect fostering of prereading and prewriting skills. The need to define the role of parents as persons who can upgrade and encourage early literacy will also be discussed.

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