There is growing recognition that literacy learning takes place in the years prior to formal schooling and that young children develop literacy-like behaviours through exposure to interactions in shared contexts in which literacy is a component. Despite this, there are few assessments that measure the very early literacy skills that children develop before 36 months of age. This article reports on the design and validation of a new instrument – the Early Literacy Engagement Assessment (ELEA). This tool was developed to provide insights into the impact of Conversational Reading, a key pedagogical strategy implemented at Families as First Teachers playgroups, on young children’s early receptive and expressive vocabulary and literacy skills. The instrument was trialled with 104 children living in locations across Melbourne, Victoria, and 39 Aboriginal children living in remote communities in the Northern Territory. The trial process was undertaken in two phases: (1) a technical assessment to test item consistency, characteristics and placement and (2) concurrent validity testing against items from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-2 tool. The findings from the trial and validation process indicate that overall the ELEA discriminates well between children of high and low ability, and it is a useful tool in the authentic assessment of expressive and receptive vocabulary skills in young children.

人们越来越认识到，扫盲学习发生在正规教育之前的几年中，并且幼儿通过在识字是其中一个组成部分的共享环境中接触互动而发展出类似识字的行为。尽管如此，很少有评估可以衡量儿童在36个月之前发展的早期识字能力。本文报告了一种新工具的设计和验证-早期扫盲参与评估（ELEA）。开发该工具的目的是为了深入了解“对话式阅读”的影响，对话式阅读是在家庭中作为第一任教师的游戏小组实施的一项重要教学策略，对幼儿的早期接受性和表达性词汇及识字技能产生了影响。该仪器已被104名居住在维多利亚州墨尔本市各地的儿童试用。在北领地偏远社区生活的39名原住民儿童。该试验过程分为两个阶段：（1）对项目的一致性，特征和位置进行技术评估，以及（2）对“语言基础学前班2临床评估”工具中的项目进行并发有效性测试。从试验和验证过程中得出的结果表明，总体上，ELEA能够很好地区分能力高和低的孩子，它是对幼儿表达和接受词汇能力进行真实评估的有用工具。特征和位置，以及（2）对“语言基础学前班2临床评估”工具中的项目进行并发有效性测试。从试验和验证过程中得出的结果表明，总体上，ELEA能够很好地区分能力高和低的孩子，它是对幼儿表达和接受词汇能力进行真实评估的有用工具。特征和位置，以及（2）对“语言基础学前班2临床评估”工具中的项目进行并发有效性测试。从试验和验证过程中得出的结果表明，总体上，ELEA能够很好地区分能力高和低的孩子，它是对幼儿表达和接受词汇能力进行真实评估的有用工具。