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Emergent literacy is used to describe behaviors in young children imitating reading and writing activities such as”reading” from pictures and “writing” with scribbles. It is a term which was introduced in 1966 by Marie Clay, a New Zealand researcher. The concept of emergent literacy evolved during the past decade as the result of new information on how young children develop an understanding of reading and writing. Currently, this term has been expanded to include reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and thinking. It is believed that children’s concepts about literacy are molded from the earliest experiences and interactions they have with readers and writers as well as through their own attempts to read, write, and construct meaning (Sulzby & Teale, 1991).

When educators talk about emergent literacy, they are usually referring to children from birth to kindergarten who listen to stories being read aloud, focus on objects, and recognize sounds and experiment with crayons, markers, and pencils. (May, 1998). With the support of parents, caregivers, and teachers, as well as exposure to a literacy-rich environment, children successfully progress from emergent to conventional reading.

Developmental Stages
Birth to 2years

Children's experiences with oral language development and literacy begin to build a foundation which will lead to reading success.

2-3 years of age

Children begin to produce understandable speech in response to books and the written marks they create. They also begin to experiment with writing by making scribble marks which will eventually develop into letters.

3-4 years of age

Children show rapid growth in literacy during this stage. They begin to attempt to read their favorite books by themselves, but are really focusing on the pictures.

5 years

Most children enter kindergarten and start receiving formal instruction. They are considered emergent readers and are just beginning to control early reading strategies such as directionality, word-by-word matching and concepts of print. Children's writing also develops rapidly during kindergarten. They begin to use phonetic spelling which typically represents the most dominant sounds in a word, such as the beginning and ending sounds.

Elements of Emergent Literacy
According to the University of Idaho, Center on Disabilities and Human Development, in watching children engage in literacy events, researchers have identified several elements of emerging literacy. They are as follows:

1.	Learning to read and write begins very early in life.

2.	Reading and writing develop concurrently and interrelatedly in young children. 3.	Literacy develops from real life situations in which reading and writing are used to get things done. Function precedes form.

4.	Children learn literacy through active engagement.

5.	Being read to plays a special role in the literacy development of the young child. 6.	Learning to read and write is a developmental process. Children pass through the stages in a variety of ways and at different ages.