Quality of the Literacy Environment in Day Care and Children's Development.

This study of the literacy environment in 30 day care centers provides another contextual framework for viewing children's development and learning. Using a reliable standardized instrument (ECERS), the researchers rated each classroom on quality of language and reasoning aspects and on developmentally appropriate aspects of the environment. Evaluations of variety of play materials, the number of literacy-related activities, and quality of the literacy environment were also conducted, as well as of children's language and cognitive development.

Although there was a range of literacy environmental quality across programs, most programs had few or no literacy-related free play activities. Day care quality was not related to literacy environment on most dimensions; however, teacher certification was related to higher literacy quality. Literacy quality could be predicted from the scores for developmentally appropriate activities and for language/reasoning. Children's language was related to higher quality environments and to family education and socioeconomic status.

The results of the study are similar to those from other studies that show day care quality and teacher certification are important factors in environments that foster children's development. Because quality literacy environments are more likely to be present when those two factors are present and because children's language development was related to literacy quality, the importance of having literacy-rich day care environments is emphasized. Unfortunately, the researchers did not specifically measure children's literacy knowledge; therefore the exact impact is not clear.

Surprisingly, even when day care was of high quality and teachers were well trained, the day care environments had a low level of literacy-related materials and activities during free play. Day care teachers might be more likely to improve the literacy quality of the environment and, ultimately, to promote children's language and literacy development if they were aware of its importance. There are many literacy-related materials that are inexpensive; thus, they could fit within the budget of most day care centers if literacy quality was a priority. Further study that would categorize the specific types of literacy interactions that occur in day care environments could be a useful next step.