There is an increasing recognition of the importance of literacy learning in the years before school. Key principles of high quality literacy programs for young children have been developed as the result of a recent study of 79 preschool and long day care centres in New South Wales. These principles include communicating with families about literacy, building on children's home experiences, planning to support individual literacy needs, integrating literacy experiences across the curriculum, and adult—child interactions that scaffold literacy understandings.
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