By Jacqueline Schaefer
Director of Early Childhood Pedagogy and Program Development at The Harmony School at Beth David
Literacy has become something of a commodity in early childhood education. There are toys that promise to teach babies their letters, subscription boxes designed to give toddlers a head start, and entire preschool curricula built around preparing children to read before they've even entered kindergarten.
Somewhere along the way, we've managed to turn one of the most remarkable parts of human development into another set of milestones to measure and products to purchase.
None of this is to suggest that learning to read and write isn't important. Of course it is. But our preoccupation with how early children acquire these skills has narrowed the conversation about what literacy actually is and how it develops.
Literacy is often understood as the ability to read and write, but this definition leaves out much of what makes human communication so extraordinary. We interpret facial expressions, recognize gestures, understand symbols, tell stories, and create meaning through images and movement. Children begin participating in these forms of communication long before they can identify a single letter.
A toddler signing "more" is using a symbol to communicate an idea. A preschooler drawing a map of their neighborhood is representing their understanding of a place. Children inventing an elaborate story together are experimenting with language, narrative, and the relationship between words and meaning.
These aren't simply activities that keep children occupied until they're old enough for reading instruction. They're meaningful experiences through which children develop language, symbolic thinking, and an understanding of how communication works.
The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education offers a particularly compelling way to think about this. Loris Malaguzzi's concept of the hundred languages of children recognizes that children express their thinking through countless forms of communication, including drawing, movement, sculpture, construction, storytelling, and play.
Recognizing these languages requires us to reconsider what counts as knowledge in an early childhood classroom. It also challenges the assumption that literacy development follows one universal path, independent of children's cultures, relationships, and lived experiences.
At The Harmony School, our approach to early literacy begins with a respect for the knowledge children already possess. We build upon that foundation through rich language experiences, meaningful opportunities for reading and writing, and intentional instruction that meets children where they are developmentally.
Whose Language Counts?
Children don't arrive at preschool without language or literacy experiences. They arrive with a wealth of knowledge shaped by their families, cultures, and communities. Yet the ways children communicate at home don't always align with the expectations they encounter at school.
Consider the way we teach children to participate in conversations. In many classrooms, children are expected to raise their hands, wait quietly for their turn, and avoid interrupting. These expectations can help a group function, but they also reflect particular cultural conventions about what respectful communication looks like.
In some families and communities, conversation looks quite different. People may overlap one another's speech, enthusiastically interject, or finish each other's thoughts. This conversational style which is particularly common in Jewish homes, sometimes called cooperative overlapping, can communicate engagement and connection rather than disrespect.
When schools treat one way of speaking as inherently more appropriate than another, children may receive the message that the communication practices they've learned at home are somehow wrong.
Educational researcher Mariana Souto-Manning has written about the importance of challenging ethnocentric literacy practices and recognizing the cultural knowledge children bring into educational spaces. Her work asks educators to consider whose definitions of literacy are being prioritized and what happens when children's home experiences are treated as obstacles rather than assets.
This doesn't mean children shouldn't learn to navigate different social and academic settings. Developing an understanding of when and how to use different forms of communication is an important part of growing up. But children shouldn't have to reject their home cultures to succeed in school.
In a Jewish early childhood setting, these questions are especially interesting. Our traditions are rich with storytelling, interpretation, debate, and questioning. Children may encounter Hebrew in blessings and songs, recognize the symbols of Jewish holidays, or participate in family rituals that carry meaning long before they can read the words associated with them.
At Harmony, we see these experiences as part of children's developing literacy. We also recognize that Jewish families are not culturally or linguistically identical, and that every child brings knowledge shaped by their own experiences.
A classroom becomes a richer place when those differences are welcomed, shared, and taken seriously.
The Hundred Languages in Practice
The hundred languages of children is one of the most recognizable ideas associated with Reggio Emilia-inspired education, but its implications extend far beyond offering children art materials.
Malaguzzi described the way children move between symbolic languages, discovering new possibilities as they translate an idea from one form of expression into another.
Think about a child investigating a bird's nest. They might begin by observing it closely, then attempt to construct one using sticks and grasses. Later, they may draw what they've noticed, dictate a story about the birds that live there, or ask an educator to help identify the different materials they found.
Each experience offers another opportunity to revisit and expand their understanding.
The educator's role is significant here. A teacher might introduce new vocabulary, encourage the child to explain their thinking, record their words, or offer a book that deepens the investigation. What begins as an interest in a bird's nest becomes an opportunity to explore language, scientific observation, storytelling, and representation.
These kinds of experiences are central to the way we think about curriculum at Harmony. Rather than treating literacy as an isolated part of the day, we look for opportunities to connect it to children's investigations and relationships.
Our nature-based environment is particularly well suited to this work. Children can make marks in soil, create drawings with natural pigments, explore the shapes of leaves, or use found materials to represent their ideas. In the classroom, they can revisit those experiences through books, conversation, writing, and artistic expression.
The materials themselves aren't what make these experiences educational. Their value comes from what children do with them and how thoughtfully educators respond.
Teaching Children to Read and Write
Broadening our definition of literacy should not come at the expense of teaching children the skills they need to become proficient readers and writers.
There has been considerable debate in education about the most effective ways to teach reading, particularly around phonics instruction and approaches that emphasize meaning and language.
The evidence supporting explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding is important. Children benefit from learning how spoken words are made up of sounds and how those sounds correspond to letters. These understandings are essential to learning to read an alphabetic writing system like English.
But early literacy development also involves vocabulary, oral language, comprehension, storytelling, and familiarity with books and print. Children need opportunities to hear rich language, ask questions, experiment with writing, and discover that reading has a purpose beyond completing an assignment.
At Harmony, we believe these elements belong together.
A child might become interested in the first letter of their name after noticing it on a classroom sign. An educator can build on that interest by introducing the letter's name and sound and drawing attention to other words that begin similarly.
During dramatic play, children might create signs for a pretend store, dictate menus, or experiment with writing shopping lists. A teacher can model how words are written, introduce relevant vocabulary, and help children connect the sounds they hear with the letters that represent them.
Teachers also plan intentional experiences around rhyming, syllables, sound awareness, letter recognition, and other emerging literacy skills.
Not every literacy concept will emerge naturally through play, nor should teachers expect it to. Children benefit from responsive guidance and direct instruction appropriate to their developmental needs.
This requires educators who understand both the progression of literacy development and the individual children in their care. It also requires recognizing that children develop at different rates and may need different kinds of support.
A thoughtful approach to literacy is neither a collection of worksheets nor an expectation that children will discover everything independently. It's teaching with intention.
When Education Becomes a Product
The commercialization of early education raises questions that go beyond whether a particular toy or curriculum is effective.
When companies market products around the promise of giving children an academic advantage, they also influence what families come to believe children should know, and when they should know it.
An increasingly competitive market for early learning products can make childhood feel like a series of opportunities that parents might miss if they don't purchase the right materials or begin instruction early enough.
There are also questions of equity. Not every family can afford specialized educational toys, subscription services, or private enrichment programs. When these products are presented as necessary for children's success, access to early learning can appear dependent on a family's ability to pay.
The same concerns extend into classrooms. Commercial curricula may provide useful tools and resources, but they can also encourage educators to follow predetermined sequences of activities that leave little room for children's questions, experiences, and cultural knowledge.
No curriculum can anticipate every child who will enter a classroom or every idea worth investigating.
This is one reason we place such value on reflective, knowledgeable educators at Harmony. Teachers need to be able to evaluate materials, recognize developmental needs, and make informed decisions about the experiences they offer.
Sometimes a carefully selected book or instructional resource is exactly what a child needs. Other times, the most valuable materials are a collection of sticks, a blank piece of paper, and the opportunity to explain an idea to someone who is listening.
Literacy, Identity, and Belonging
The way a school approaches literacy also communicates something about whose voices matter.
Children learn about language and communication through their relationships with others. When their ideas are listened to, their stories are recorded, and their home languages are welcomed, they begin to recognize themselves as participants in a community where their contributions have value.
This is particularly important for children whose language practices, abilities, or cultural experiences differ from those traditionally represented in educational materials.
A child who communicates through gestures or assistive technology deserves the same recognition as a child who communicates fluently through speech. A child who speaks a language other than English at home should have opportunities to see that language reflected and respected at school.
These practices require more than including a few multilingual books or culturally diverse materials on classroom shelves. They involve developing relationships with families, learning about children's experiences, and inviting children to participate in shaping the classroom itself.
They also ask educators to examine their own assumptions about what knowledge looks like and how children demonstrate understanding.
For us, this work connects naturally to the Jewish values that shape Harmony's community. The traditions of questioning, studying, interpreting, and learning with others remind us that education is not simply about receiving information. It is about engaging with ideas and with one another.
Children should have opportunities to develop the skills that will help them navigate the world while also knowing that the languages, cultures, and experiences they bring into that world are worthy of respect.
A Broader Vision of Literacy at Harmony
Learning to read is a remarkable accomplishment. The ability to make sense of written language opens doors to knowledge, imagination, connection, and independence. We want children to become skilled readers and writers, and we take the foundations of that learning seriously.
But we also want to be careful about what gets overlooked when reading and writing become the only measures of literacy that matter.
The child who tells an elaborate story through block play is developing an understanding of narrative. The child who studies the symbols on a Shabbat table is learning that objects and images carry cultural meaning. The child who draws, revises, and explains an idea is discovering that their thinking can be represented and shared. None of these experiences replaces reading instruction. They contribute to a broader foundation of language, communication, and meaning-making that children will continue to build upon throughout their lives.
At The Harmony School, our approach is grounded in an understanding of literacy as both an academic and a deeply human experience. We want children to develop the skills they need to engage with written language, but we also want them to grow up knowing that their ideas matter, that there are many ways to communicate, and that learning is something they can actively participate in. There is more to literacy than learning the alphabet. And there is more to a child's education than how quickly they learn to read.
References and Further Reading
Malaguzzi, L. (1998). History, ideas, and basic philosophy: An interview with Lella Gandini. In C. Edwards, L. Gandini, & G. Forman (Eds.), The Hundred Languages of Children.
Souto-Manning, M. Challenging ethnocentric literacy practices: [Review full publication details before posting].
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2020). Developmentally Appropriate Practice Position Statement.
National Reading Panel. (2000). *Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Im