Which stage of literacy development encompasses competencies developed in early childhood and preschool?

• A. Emergent Literacy Stage
• B. Alphabetic Stage
• C. Print Awareness Stage
• D. Phonemic Awareness Stage

Answer: (A)

Emergent literacy describes what children know and can do before formal reading instruction. In early childhood and preschool, kids develop a broad set of foundational skills: they understand that print carries meaning, they learn how books work and how to handle them, they scribble and pretend to write, and they begin building oral language and awareness of sounds that will later support decoding. This wide range of competencies precedes the Alphabetic Stage, which focuses on letter–sound relationships and decoding in elementary years, and includes elements like print awareness and phonemic awareness as parts of early literacy development. So the stage that encompasses these early competencies is emergent literacy.