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Comparison of Digital Literacy Development Between Children and Adolescents

By: Christopher Ruckdeschel

In school, as illustrated by both national and state ELA learning standards, students continue to develop the literacy skill education that began in the home. In childhood, students develop a tiered understanding concerning the function of language that follows the following general order: understanding of the structure and function of language to create meaning, manipulating one's own language to improve the focus of the message, organizing ideas in a logical manner, evaluating other's work for further analysis of word use and logic, as well as, for social interaction practice. Generally, the NYS ELA learning standards support these four categories essential to a child's literacy development. Standard 1 states that "students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts" (Learning standards for English language arts, 2003). In greater detail, the national ELA standards provide specific strategies and actions young children will take in their manipulation of language for meaning: students will "rearrange words, sentences, and paragraphs to improve or clarify meaning; varies sentence type; adds descriptive words and details; deletes extraneous information" (Language arts standards, 2003). Clearly, the importance of comprehending the meaning of a text is present in this standard, in addition to the emphasis that is placed upon the later communication of the text's meaning. Accordingly, Standard 4 says "students will use oral and written language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people" (Learning standards for English language arts, 2003). Further, the national ELA standards reveal that students will "ask questions and make comments about writing, help classmates apply grammatical and mechanical conventions," as well as, "incorporate suggestions from peers and teachers" (Language arts standards, 2003). From this, it is apparent that the development of social skills and an understanding of the subtleties of interactions involving criticism are important literacy skills. Even though childhood literacy development is vital to continued literacy growth, young students do not engage in literacy activities that are intellectually demanding when compared to logical and abstract literacy tasks present in adolescence. This phenomenon has been described as being composed of "three categories of writing based on the degree of intellectual demand, the extent to which composing was a central concern, and the complexity of the discourse" (Cairney et. al., 1998). The three categories are: "handwriting, transcribing, copying; short answer pieces and note making; extended discourse" (Cairney et. al., 1998). These findings are supported by the theories of Piaget. Piaget believed that before age twelve, thought was characterized by illogical egocentric notions, which entails the child viewing the world from only his or her own perspective (Feldman, 1996). Conversely, after the age of twelve the adolescent begins to develop both logical and later abstract thought (Feldman, 1996). Interestingly, this transition in cognitive linguistic ability is coupled with the changes that result when students leave elementary school and enter middle or junior high school and the change of instruction that comes as a result of teachers moving from providing instruction in many content areas to those who specialize in one concentration.

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