In the context of unprecedented uses of digital technologies in everyday life, this research explores the range of literacy skills and practices that 3 and 4 year old children develop at home and in early education, as they engage with the diverse printed and electronic texts they encounter in today's world. The study combines an ethnographic approach with multimodal analysis to investigate what kinds of written, oral, visual and digital literacies the children studied engage with, how adults' beliefs and practices about literacy impact on the processes of the children's learning, and how the children use different modes (such as spoken and written language, images, sounds and layout) as they engage with different media. Fieldwork includes a survey of literacy practices amongst staff, children and their families in one urban, early years setting, with in-depth video case studies of 6 boys and girls from a range of social backgrounds. Particular attention is paid to how the young children's literacy develops in relation to social contexts, processes and practices, how they move between the different modes and media available to them, and the implications of this for early literacy learning.