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Young children's symbolic representations are important to emergent literacy; therefore, this study focused on children's spontaneous block building and picture drawing in preschool. The goals of this exploratory study were: (1) investigate the relation between the complexity of block play, picture drawing details, and performance on an emergent literacy assessment, (2) analyze block play complexity and its relation to details in picture drawing, and (3) explore the demographic variables related to block play and picture drawing. Nineteen preschool children from a university laboratory school were participants in this study. Results indicated that block play complexity (structure complexity, unique blocks used and total number of blocks used) were highly correlated to children's emergent literacy scores. Additionally, children's picture drawing showed strong relationships to the literacy assessment score. Further, a significant drawing-writing connection was revealed. There were no gender differences found for picture drawing; however, there was a significant gender difference in the number of blocks used during block play, with girls using more than boys. The study suggests that children who demonstrate more complexity in their block building also display more details within their picture drawing.

This study examines young children's attitudes toward reading and writing as it relates to the literacy environment in which they had been enrolled. Children (N = 201) attending magnet schools (schools established to address desegregation mandates) in a large urban, midwestern school district were given a reading and writing attitude survey the first week of school. The survey results were compared to the children's literacy development measures as well as quality ratings of the literacy environment in which they had participated. Results indicate attitudes toward reading and writing varied significantly depending on the quality of the classroom literacy environment. Children's attitudes became more positive as the quality of the literacy environment improved. In addition, children's literacy development and attitudes toward reading and writing were strongly related. Variables such as race and gender were not related to children's attitudes; however, economically at-risk children had more negative attitudes toward reading and writing than children from more-advantaged families. The data further reveal that attitudes toward writing were more negative than attitudes toward reading. (Contains 4 figures and 7 tables.)

Preschool classrooms were investigated to determine the extent to which quality is related to children's literacy development. The study included 24 classrooms of 428 prekindergarten children in a large, urban Midwestern school district. Results suggest that global classroom quality and literacy environment quality are strongly related. Literacy environment quality and children's literacy abilities are also related. Differences in classroom quality were found to have an impact on children's literacy scores--the higher the quality, the higher the scores. This article also describes lessons learned from the investigation and provides suggestions for teachers and administrators for improving quality to enhance literacy development.

In general, talking with young children encourages development in many areas: (1) spoken language; (2) early literacy; (3) cognitive development; (4) social skills; and (5) emotional maturity. Speaking with children in increasingly complex and responsive ways does this even better. This article explores research findings about the effects of adult's language and conversations on children's development. It also discusses ways that teachers can include more intentional talk in their daily routines and classroom activities to support children's learning.