Emergent literacy refers to "the reading and writing behaviors that precede and develop into conventional literacy," according to Elizabeth Sulzby. Sulzby and William Teale wrote in1996, "Emergent literacy is concerned with the earliest phases of literacy development, the period between birth and the time when children read and write conventionally. The term emergent literacy signals a belief that, in a literate society, young children -- even 1- and 2-year-olds--are in the process of becoming literate."
Emergent Literacy