Media Literacy for Young Children

Media Literacy in Early Childhood Education will be a first-of-its-kind guide for pre-service and currently practicing teachers and child care professionals looking for pedagogically sound and developmentally appropriate ways to help today's children navigate the world of media. This book is for every early childhood professional who isn t satisfied with a just say no approach to children and technology, but who has concerns about digital media and may not know what to do instead. The book takes a developmental approach to media literacy, mapping out what early childhood educators need to do in the earliest years to lay the foundations for the sophisticated skills we expect of media literate adults and digital citizens. The book is consciously upbeat and accessible. The book is suitable for students in a community college CDA program and also rigorous enough for early childhood scholars. As much as is possible in a book involving media, examples are purposefully evergreen, avoiding dependency on knowledge of specific apps or familiarity with shows that are particularly popular now. The book models media literacy education as a method by embedding media analysis opportunities and pauses for reflection throughout, not just in sections specifically dedicated to those skills. This book is premised on the belief that every early childhood professional has the capacity to navigate the profound challenges of preparing young children to thrive in an unpredictable digital future. Equipped with wonder and imagination, users will be able to use the practice and pedagogy of media literacy education as a field guide.