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 Handbook helps spell out literacy development by Dawn Ford
Linda Phillips, an education professor and director of the U of A's Centre for Research on Literacy, is editor of the newly-launched Handbook of Language and Literacy Development, a roadmap from birth to 60 months. Dedicated to the creation of rich evidence-based resources, the new handbook is a guide for researchers, parents and caregivers to track the milestones for children's development in a multitude of areas including auditory, narrative, reading, speech-language, spelling, writing, social-emotional, vision, computer use, children's literature and numeracy. "In keeping with the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network's vision of 'sharing the science,' the strength of the handbook lies in the coming together of multiple perspectives," said Phillips, who is recipient of numerous awards including the first Beauchamp Laureate for excellence in Literacy at the U of A.A holder of several national and international research grants, Phillips has published extensively in the social and medical sciences and has spent her career advocating for literacy, a passion she attributes to her early days while teaching in a small community. "Years ago, I was a teacher, principal and district supervisor of reading. During that time, I met many children that I knew could have been more successful in school had they been helped earlier," says Phillips. For example, she noticed that the challenge for many students in mathematics could be caused by their difficulty in "reading" the equations. "I was intrigued with why they found it difficult to read. When I began to teach them how to 'read' the math and think about the problem first, the rest became easier for them," she said. Phillips has since made the study of language and literacy her life's work and devotes her research, teaching and practice to understanding the kinds of problems children experience and how they and their families can be helped. What makes the online literacy handbook designed by Phillips and her colleagues different is that it includes eight evidence-based areas of children's language and literacy, something Phillips says is a crucial component to understanding literacy. "Evidence-based research is critically important because children's language and literacy development can be uncertain. There are lots of ideas and programs about what to do, but is there any evidence that these work, at what age, for what purpose, and under what situations," she said. According to Phillips, the safest and most informed route to take when considering a child's reading problem is to ask what the research says. This way an intervention can be based not on conjecture but by the best research available. "Language and literacy development are important to the well-rounded development of children socially, emotionally and cognitively," said Phillips. "It gives our children the opportunity to engage with others, to have a life of the mind, and to be able to think about and do almost anything they wish." The online handbook is funded through The Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network, which includes over 40 researchers from coast to coast in Canada. CLLRNet has a mission to improve children's language and literacy development and is currently working on a National Strategy for Early Literacy. This article originally appeared in ExpressNews.
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