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I've been thinking about the relationship between childhood and literacy, and the more I think about it, the more and more it seems as though literacy is inherently integral to childhood.  Even the term “childhood” can vary greatly, and the concept of "childhood" is actually a pretty modern, culture-specific construct.  

That said, if we no longer assume that “children”--i.e. humans younger than 10--all over the world have “childhood” in common, what do they have in common?  I believe that when we pose “literacy” as a social form of communication, we can ascertain that literacy is an integral part of “childhood.”  Since all children have some form of communication within their communities and thus navigate their own realities, all children are inherently “literate”--and, indeed, fluent in their own realities.  That fluent literacy may not look the same in sub saharan Africa as it does in Tokyo, but assuming a child can communicate his needs, wants, and thoughts to members of the community--even if not necessarily using verbal indicators--he is inherently literate in the infrastructure of his community.  Just as we need to appreciate the theory of multiple intelligences in classrooms, so too do we need to address, internalize, and accept the “theory of multiple and inherent literacies” on the global, almost anthropological level.