A number of initiatives have been implemented in the early grades in New Brunswick schools in an effort to boost literacy. Some of the most common activities include daily silent reading periods; the regular use of adults, high profile sports team players or older students as reading buddies; and after school reading programs and tutoring sessions. The application of specific computer programs to enhance reading skills and the inclusion of ninety minutes of daily uninterrupted literacy programming have also been put into practice in recent years (E. Crawford, personal communication, May 27, 2002). The latest kindergarten to grade 2 initiative, part of New Brunswick's Quality Learning Agenda to strengthen the provincial education system, is the early identification and intervention for students learning to read who are experiencing difficulties with phonemic awareness¹¹ (Heydon, 2004; Province of New Brunswick, 2004). Short term intensive small group programs are conducted by Early Literacy Specialists or Literacy Support Teachers.

It is expected that achieving competence in not only school literacy, but also the new literacies that will be needed for the modern information and communication technology, will become more and more critical. Western society, with its largely information and knowledge-based economy, relies heavily on technology. As Rideout (2001) has highlighted, in our complex and rapidly changing world, individuals must acquire increasingly specialized skills for their livelihood since resource base and industrial jobs are on the decline. Economically-disadvantaged children who lack access to computer technologies and the associated new literacies that are becoming essential in western culture, may find themselves without sufficient knowledge to cope effectively with electronic media needed for success in the future. Richmond (1999) contends that this will cause them to trail farther behind their economically-advantaged classmates.

¹¹ Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to identify, attend to and manipulate sounds in words (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler, 1998).