LITERACY LEVELS: STAGES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The literacy levels are the different phases that a child goes through during the process of learning to read and write. They were studied for the first time by Emilia Ferreiro in 1979, in her work Writing systems in child development. Although the processes of acquisition of reading and writing are similar, they are not the same.

In general, four stages are usually distinguished that the child goes through when learning to write (concrete, pre-syllabic, syllabic and alphabetic). On the contrary, only three phases are discussed when learning to read (presyllabic, syllabic and alphabetic). Studying these literacy levels is very important.

Its importance lies in the fact that it allows experts to predict what problems will occur in each of the stages and to propose solutions that adjust to these difficulties. In addition, it also helps to study how the cognitive development of children evolves.

Reading levels

Children go through three main stages when they are learning to interpret written texts: pre-syllabic stage, syllabic stage, and alphabetic stage.

Each of these is characterized by the presence or absence of two fundamental aspects when it comes to understanding written words or texts.

The first of these is the qualitative aspect. It refers to how the sounds of each of the letters are interpreted. The child who masters this aspect will be able to identify which are the letters that make up the words, what is their sound and in what order they are present.

The second aspect is known as quantitative. It has to do with the written form of the word; for example, with how many letters they form it and if its graphic representation is long or short.

Thus, in the presyllabic stage the child does not dominate either of the two aspects. By understanding the quantitative, you would advance to the syllabic stage, while the alphabetic stage would be reached when you are able to understand both aspects.

Presyllabic stage

The first level of reading arises when a child is asked to interpret the meaning of a word or a written text, but is unable to master either of the two aspects mentioned above. Thus, the child will invent the meaning of what is written, or will directly defend that it has none.

Imagination is the main component that children use to interpret written words at this stage.

For example, we could find explanations such as that long words are names of large objects, and short words of small objects.

Syllabic stage

This second stage is reached when the child has understood the quantitative aspect of reading; that is, when it mainly manages to differentiate the size of the written word.

As he does not yet understand the meaning of each of the letters, the child will deduce that a long word represents any of the ones he already knows.

For example, if you see the word "car" written, you might interpret it to mean such disparate things as "fisherman" or "pelican." The same would happen with short words.

The main difference between this second level and the first is that the child will try to read the word, sometimes trying to follow the syllables with his finger.

Thus, the intention to interpret the written text appears for the first time instead of simply inventing the meaning.

Alphabetic stage

Once the child has mastered the qualitative aspect of reading, he is able to begin to distinguish the different letters from each other and to interpret them. In this way, for the first time you can actually try to read what is written.

From this point on, it will only be a matter of time for the child to acquire the ability to read.

Writing levels

The names of the different stages that children go through when learning to write are practically the same as those of the reading levels. This is because the challenges encountered are very similar in both cases.

However, in the case of writing, we usually speak of a level prior to the presyllabic, known as concrete. Thus, the four levels of writing are concrete, pre-syllabic, syllabic and alphabetic.

Concrete stage

This stage occurs when the child still does not understand at all the functioning of writing or the shape of letters, but wants to begin to imitate the way of expressing texts that he sees in his elders.

Thus, if you try to imitate cursive letters, you will tend to draw a solid line with different shapes and curves. On the contrary, if you are trying to imitate print, you will draw shapes not joined together.

It should be noted that the drawings made by the child at this stage are not related to the words they are trying to represent or to the actual letters of the alphabet.

Presyllabic stage

In this second stage the child has learned to reproduce some letters, but still does not know what their meaning is. However, he has understood that each of these represents a different sound and will try to capture this in his writing.

Then, he will use different combinations of the letters he knows to represent different words, but since he does not yet know what each of these means, he will do it at random, being able to use a single letter to represent even syllables or complete words.

Syllabic stage

At this level, the child will still not know exactly the sound that each letter represents, but will try to deduce it by using the ones he knows to represent specific syllables. For example, you may believe that the "m" is always read as "me" or as "ma."

Therefore, at this stage you will be able to divide words into syllables and make an approximate writing of them, but you have not yet mastered the relationship between what is written and the sounds that it intends to represent.

Alphabetic stage

The last stage is reached when the child discovers which sound each of the letters of the alphabet represents and is able to combine them appropriately.

From this point on the only problems you will encounter will have to do with spelling, not with the writing process itself.

References

1. "Literacy" in: Initial Education. Retrieved on: May 16, 2018 from Initial Education: educacioninicial.com.
2. "Levels in the literacy process" in: Educational language. Retrieved on: May 16, 2018 from Educational Language:Deskdocente.wordpress.com.
3. "How to evaluate the stages of literacy?" in: Topics for education. Retrieved on: May 16, 2018 from Topics for education: feandalucia.ccoo.es.
4. "Process of acquisition of literacy and mathematical logic" in: Secretary of education of the state government. Retrieved on: May 16, 2018 from the Secretary of Education of the State Government: seslp.gob.mx.
5. "Levels of the reading - writing process" in: Prezi. Retrieved on: May 16, 2018 from Prezi: prezi.com.