Bronwyn Beecher

Languages and literacies in early childhood: At home and in early childhood settings

SUMMARY This paper reports on one aspect of a collaborative early childhood literacy research project in New South Wales, Australia, where two government departments and three universities investigated the language and literacy environments of preschool age children at home and in settings. Researchers observed and rated the environments of 80 early childhood settings, followed by interviews with staff members working in the setting as well as focus group discussions with representative family members. The project focused on families and settings of children from Aboriginal, bilingual and low socio-economic backgrounds. In settings with strong levels of congruence between family and staff perspectives on early literacies, both stakeholders shared understandings of cultural and family practices, in comparison to those settings where shared understandings about diverse literacies were not present.

Assessing Internet Resources for Early Childhood Education

Educators and parents must make sound educational decisions about of digital resources for use with young children. This paper reports on a project which evaluated current online resources for children eight years and younger. Over sixty sites were evaluated. Analysis examined the availability and quality of the sites and suitability for two groups: under fives and over fives. Many sites were difficult for young children to use independently and demanded expertise with literacy processes beyond the level of children in this age group.