Development of an Early Reading Program for Day Care Centers in Urban Poor Communities in the Philippines.

This paper describes research that was conducted in three phases between 1989-1990 to develop a 3-month early reading program for the use of day care centers in urban poor communities. The research meant to promote early literacy skills in a manner relevant to the children by using language with which they are comfortable and materials that are suited to their economic situation. At the same time, this research sought to contribute to the broadening scope of alternative education which has largely been limited to adult literacy and skills training. The background of the particular educational problems in the Philippines connected to the situation of women, children, and urban poverty is discussed. Also, the history and trends of preschool education in the Philippines and early literacy for the Filipino child are discussed. The paper then details the study's needs assessment; development of the early reading program (a holistic, literature-based approach to the teaching of reading and language); and implementation of the 3-month program in two day care centers (one served as control, the other as the experimental group). The paper relates that the children who underwent the early reading program exhibited significant gains in more areas of early literacy than the control group, which used a regular day care program. Includes three figures and a table of data; contains 18 references. (NKA)