Nº. 2026 | 1

Literacy in early childhood

Early literacy forms the foundation for school integration, educational success and participation in society. Its development begins long before children enter school and unfolds as a continuous process which builds on prior experiences and which is further expanded through institutional educational opportunities.
Particularly during the transition into school, consciously supporting the shift from informal language acquisition to explicit educational processes becomes increasingly important. At the same time, significant differences in linguistic, literacy and media-related experience are already evident in school entry-level children. These differences influence subsequent educational trajectories and challenge educational institutions to design learning opportunities which are early, coherent and of high quality.
This creates a need to think across institutional boundaries and to strengthen collaboration between families, early childhood education institutions and schools. Early childhood education concepts emphasise the child as an active agent in shaping their own development. At the same time, the transition into institutionalised learning contexts presupposes a careful balancing of individual developmental processes and societal educational expectations.
In Switzerland, numerous initiatives promoting early language and literacy development have been established over the past decades. Nevertheless, reviews of the current situation continue to identify a need for improvement in terms of accessibility, coordination and the professionalisation of early childhood educational provision. Supporting families in their role as central actors in language development and education remains especially important, as does the further development of language support integrated into everyday practice in institutional contexts.
The articles in this issue address these perspectives from various academic and practice-oriented viewpoints. They examine early literacy development processes, institutional and family-based approaches to support, as well as questions of assessment, professionalisation and the methodological design of early education programmes. Together, they show how early literacy emerges and can be fostered within complex social, linguistic and institutional contexts. More

Sauerborn & Schottorf demonstrate in their longitudinal study that early emergent literacy skills are closely related to later reading and spelling performance. They also show that differences between monolingual and multilingual students are primarily visible in vocabulary, whilst early literacy skills related to written language show a lesser degree of variation.
Schaller et al. investigate how professionals in different early childhood institutions implement and perceive language support which is integrated into everyday activities, revealing differences in professional understandings between the pre-school and kindergarten sectors.
Holte et al. illustrate, through video-based analyses, how high-quality interactions – especially via multimodal communication and an orientation toward children’s interests – can offer effective support in language learning processes in the pre-school context.
Domeniconi & Jakob show in their article how the family literacy programmes of the SIKJM have provided effective support in early literacy development for around 20 years and how, as national initiatives, they play an important role in Switzerland’s early childhood education landscape.
Rigolet highlights the importance of quality library services that combine developmental-psychological foundations with family-oriented approaches to early literacy.
Plouffe addresses the challenge of making early literacy developmental processes visible and demonstrates the potential of development-oriented learning progress observation.
Magniant analyses how instructional language practices can support children in the transition to subject-focused learning processes in school
Makdissi et al. create a theoretical framework for development-oriented literacy learning environments and give examples of implementation in concrete educational situations.

Together, these articles show that early literacy emerges through a complex interplay of individual developmental processes, social contexts, institutional frameworks and professional practice. At the same time, they demonstrate that successful literacy promotion requires a close connection between research, practice and education policy.

Larissa Greber and Carole-Anne Deschoux

Focus Article | from science On gaps and bridges: Continuous language support from pre-school and school perspectives from Pascale Schaller, Larissa Maria Troesch, Britta Juska-Bacher, Christoph Till

The higher education development project «bisKidS» at Bern University of Teacher Education documented, for teaching purposes at the Institute of Primary Education and the Institute of Special Education, whether and how professionals in Bernese daycare centres (‘Kitas’), playgroups and the first cycle of formal schooling use everyday situations for integrated language support. The study also explored perceptions of professional roles in relation to using everyday interactions as opportunities to support language development. A special focus was placed on comparing professionals from daycare centres and playgroups with kindergarten teachers, as early years professionals and kindergarten teachers differ in terms of institutional conditions, training and pedagogical beliefs.
This article focuses on data gathered by means of a questionnaire which was conducted as part of the project. Its aim was to understand to what extent assessments of which situations are (or can be) used for integrating language support in everyday contexts align or diverge.
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https://doi.org/10.58098/lffl/2026/1/895
Focus Article | from science Heterogeneity at school entry in socially disadvantaged contexts: Early literacy and multilingualism in focus from Hanna Sauerborn, Katharina Schottorf

In a two-year longitudinal study, 117 children in their first year of school were assessed at 13 measurement points on precursor skills, vocabulary and literacy competencies. The analyses show a close relationship between early literacy-related competencies (early literacy) and later reading and spelling performance.
The sample is linguistically heterogeneous: over 60% of the children (N =70) are growing up multilingual, 38 of them with German as a second language (acquisition after the age of 3). Differences are evident in vocabulary, particularly between children with German as a second language and those growing up monolingually or as simultaneous bilinguals; however, no significant group differences were found in early literacy skills related to written language.
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https://doi.org/10.58098/lffl/2026/1/896
Focus Article | from practice 20 years of professionalisation in early years literacy promotion: practical experiences from the organisation ‘SIKJM’ from Gina Domeniconi, Barbara Jakob

The organisation SIKJM* has been engaged in the field of early literacy promotion since attention in Switzerland first began to shift towards early childhood in the early 2000s,. The aim of the two programmes ‘Schenk mir eine Geschichte’ (‘Tell me a story’) and ‘Leseanimator:innen SIKJM’ (‘SIKJM reading ambassadors’) has been to qualify facilitators who work directly with children and adults (professionals and parents) to foster rich and diverse experiences with language, stories and books.
The facilitators of ‘Schenk mir eine Geschichte’ work directly with families and children up to the age of five in a wide range of heritage languages. The ‘SIKJM reading ambassadors’ operate in various early childhood institutions, particularly in libraries in connection with the ‘Book start’ initiative.
This article traces the development and establishment of the two programmes within the Swiss early childhood educational landscape, alongside the evolution of SIKJM itself, and seeks to address current challenges.

*Swiss Institute for Children’s and Young People’s Media
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https://doi.org/10.58098/lffl/2026/1/897
Focus Article | from practice Professional practice in language-support for childcare centres from Maja Holte, Hansjakob Schneider, Betül Usul

This article examines the quality of interactions and the language-related practices of childcare professionals (‘FaBes’) at daycare centres in Zurich. It is based on the evaluation of the language support programme ‘All set for kindergarten’ (German: ‘Gut vorbereitet in den Kindergarten’), conducted by the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zürich) on behalf of the City of Zurich.
Everyday situations in 19 daycare centres were videotaped and analysed using the instrument ‘EULE’, which assesses the quality of language-supportive practices according to four dimensions: structuring and guidance, adaptation, stimulation and linguistic means. For this article, selected scenes were re-analysed in greater depth with a focus on the quality of interactions and drawing on the evaluation results.
Particularly effective are situations where FaBes deliberately use facial expressions and gestures alongside verbal utterances and also respond to children’s interests. This study highlights the active role of FaBes as facilitators of dialogue who, through intentional language use, create supportive language learning environments.
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The association Leseforum Schweiz would like to thank the Federal Office of Culture FOC for its support.

Focus Article | from science Promoting reading and writing competence in 5-6 year old children: instructional interventions for introducing language-based learning in content areas from Véronique Magniant

Research in subject-specific pedagogy highlights the importance of students learning to navigate the different school subjects. This includes acquiring the linguistic tools that support an understanding of subject-specific content.
After introducing the concept of Gestes Langagiers Didadactiques (GLD), I present selected results from a study conducted in a first year class in France (children aged 5-6). The focus is on the phase at school entry where learning activities become increasingly structured and differentiated according to subject content. Based on a comparative analysis of texts written by four children at the beginning and end of the first year, I show which gestes langagiers didactiques help them to more clearly grasp the subject-relevant context of a task and to progressively align their thinking with domain-specific approaches.
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https://doi.org/10.58098/lffl/2026/1/899
Focus Article | from science Learning environments for promoting early literacy at kindergarten from Hélène Makdissi, Catherine Montminy, Vicky Dumont

This article develops a theoretical perspective on literacy practices, providing a framework for developmentally-oriented pedagogy and for learning environments aimed at fostering early literacy at kindergarten.
The developmentally-oriented perspective is based on a functional and pragmatic understanding of language and writing. This understanding forms the foundation for early reading and writing activities such as interactive picture book sessions, dictation to the teacher and games involving symbols and rules.
Each learning situation is first described and then theoretically embedded. This is followed by illustrations of its practical implementation by a teacher who participated in Montminy’s (2023) ethnographic doctoral study.
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https://doi.org/10.58098/lffl/2026/1/900
Focus Article | from practice Designing, setting up and running a baby library
A practitioner report from Sylviane Rigolet

This project to foster an interest in books is based on an experience-driven analysis of librarians’ needs. On one hand, there is a need for specialised training to justify book selection for young children in theoretical terms. On the other hand, librarians require knowledge of interactive offerings that engage children, parents and library staff whilst also enabling them to participate actively.
The theoretical foundations of the approach presented draw on an in-depth knowledge of children’s psycholinguistic and socio-emotional development, as well as strategic expertise in group facilitation which the author acquired at Canada’s Hanen Center, which specialises in early childhood development.
This article, based on many years of experience in public libraries across diverse sociocultural and linguistic environments, presents an approach that brings numerous families together with their young children. The goal is to facilitate access to spoken language and immersion in story worlds by creating encounters with difference, valuing both individual characteristics and the strength of the community.
The various offerings are designed to engage young children’s interest, to develop their sensitivity to listening to stories, to stimulate curiosity and to engage all five senses, so they can discover each picture book in the baby library through playful and joyful exploration.
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Focus Article | from practice Observing learning progress: supporting early literacy development from Thomas Plouffe

One central challenge in a developmentally-oriented view of early literacy acquisition is that the first steps in literacy development are hardly visible. They often emerge quietly and are therefore difficult to assess diagnostically.
This is where learning progress observation comes in: It reveals the reflective and metacognitive processes children go through as they gradually develop an understanding of language, symbols and writing.
This article demonstrates the theoretical potential of learning progress assessment, which operationalises a developmentally-oriented perspective on reading and writing whilst also reflecting the practical demands of observation and evaluation in early childhood settings.
To illustrate the approach, examples are shared from a two-year practical trial in the pre-school sector. This was conducted at a school for children with hearing impairments and/or speech and language development disorders.
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https://doi.org/10.58098/lffl/2026/1/902