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

Abstract

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.