13/9/2013 Week 7
Both articles begin with clear declarations of the importance of literacy and numeracy for future success and each explores the nature of literacy and numeracy in infants and very young children. Hopkins, Brookes and Green (2013) argue early childhood is “ …critical for the successful development of adult literacy, (p 23). And Butterworth (2005) that ...”[a]rithmetical skills are essential to the effective exercise of citizenship in a numerate society.” (p 3)
Both articles begin with clear declarations of the importance of literacy and numeracy for future success and each explores the nature of literacy and numeracy in infants and very young children. Hopkins, Brookes and Green (2013) argue early childhood is “ …critical for the successful development of adult literacy, (p 23). And Butterworth (2005) that ...”[a]rithmetical skills are essential to the effective exercise of citizenship in a numerate society.” (p 3)
If we accept that literacy and numeracy are required for
success in life – are we born literate and numerate or do we develop these
skills and abilities as we experience the world? Not surprisingly perhaps the
answer is both nature and nature play a part.
It was difficult to find information about very young
children’s innate skills and capabilities. Butterworth (2005) suggests while research on
infants’ numerosity is controversial “…the current balance of evidence favours
the idea that infants are able to represent the numerosity of sets of objects
and carry out mental manipulations over these representations” (p 6) and that
infants have an “…innate specific capacity for acquiring arithmetical skills’ (p3).
Hopkins, Brookes, and Green argument is not new and also has
limitations. They differentiate between
language development apparent from birth and literacies required in a digital age
that develop over time. In order to ‘…become
literate through formal education at school, children need to have developed the
cognitive, non-cognitive and social skills on which formal learning depends..”
and that these skills are gained by exposure to environments and interactions
that support early brain development and neural pathways. (p 26)
Butterworth, B., 2005. The development of arithmetical
abilities. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46(1), pp.
3-18.
Hopkins, L., Brookes, F., and Green, J., 2013 Books, bytes and brains:
the implications of new knowledge for children's early literacy learning.
[online] Australasian Journal of Early Childhood; v.38 n.1 p.23-28;
Hi Sara,
ReplyDeleteI found the questions that you raised in this reading blog really interesting, in terms of nature versus nurture and whether or not we are in fact born literate and numerate or whether we acquire these skills over time as a result of our experiences.
This is such a fundamental psychological question that always has and continues to fascinate me, and although I am still in the process of exploring this question further, I agree with you in that I think both contribute to a child’s abilities.
Hi Sara, thank you for your reading blog. I have the same struggle to justify that literacy and numeracy abilities are depending on nature or nurture . I also find it was difficult to find information about very young children’s innate skills and capabilities, most researches conducted among 3 or older children, I did not find enough data from infants. But according to my personal experiences, I agree with you that both nature and nurture play a part.
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