Long-term effects of the home literacy environment on reading development: Familial risk for dyslexia as a moderator

Kati Vasalampi,Minna Torppa,Kenneth Eklund,Pekka Niemi

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105314

Kati Vasalampi, Minna Torppa + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105314

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Abstract

This study aimed to gain better understanding of the associations between literacy activities at home and long-term language and literacy development. We extended the home literacy environment (HLE) model of Sénéchal and LeFevre (Child Development [2002], Vol. 73, pp. 445–460) by including repeated assessments of shared reading, oral language, and reading comprehension development, including examination of familial risk for dyslexia as a moderator, and following development over time from ages 2 to 15 years. Of the 198 Finnish participants, 106 have familial risk for dyslexia due to parental dyslexia. Our path models include development in vocabulary (2–5.5 years), emerging literacy (5.5 years), reading fluency (8 and 9 years), and reading comprehension (8, 9, and 15 years) as well as shared book reading with parents (2, 4, 5, 8, and 9 years), teaching literacy at home (4.5 years), and reading motivation (8–9 years). The results supported the HLE model in that teaching literacy at home predicted stronger emerging literacy skills, whereas shared book reading predicted vocabulary development and reading motivation. Both emerging literacy and vocabulary predicted reading development. Familial risk for dyslexia was a significant moderator regarding several paths; vocabulary, reading fluency, and shared reading were stronger predictors of reading comprehension among children with familial risk for dyslexia, whereas reading motivation was a stronger predictor of reading comprehension among adolescents with no familial risk. The findings underline the importance of shared reading and suggest a long-standing impact of shared reading on reading development both directly and through oral language development and reading motivation.

Highlights

With due credit given to the efforts of educators and day-care professionals in promoting children’s reading development before attending school, a quintessential route is the home literacy environment (HLE) provided by parents (Bus, van IJzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995; Flack, Field, & Horst, 2018; Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994)
Despite the vast amount of literature on the correlation between HLE factors and children’s language and literacy development, there are two major shortcomings that we addressed in the current study: the scarcity of long-term longitudinal studies and the scarcity of studies investigating the moderating role of parental dyslexia (Snowling & Melby-Lervåg, 2016)
These gaps in knowledge are conspicuous because, first, the identification of the HLE effects may require long-term follow-up because literacy interaction at home often starts very early and its importance may lie in the accumulated effects over several years and, second, parental dyslexia is a risk factor for children’s language and literacy development (e.g., Torppa, Lyytinen, Erskine, Eklund, & Lyytinen, 2010) and it may be associated with how parent–child literacy interaction at home affects children’s reading development

Summary

Introduction

With due credit given to the efforts of educators and day-care professionals in promoting children’s reading development before attending school, a quintessential route is the home literacy environment (HLE) provided by parents (Bus, van IJzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995; Flack, Field, & Horst, 2018; Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994). Despite the vast amount of literature on the correlation between HLE factors and children’s language and literacy development, there are two major shortcomings that we addressed in the current study: the scarcity of long-term longitudinal studies and the scarcity of studies investigating the moderating role of parental dyslexia (Snowling & Melby-Lervåg, 2016). These gaps in knowledge are conspicuous because, first, the identification of the HLE effects may require long-term follow-up because literacy interaction at home often starts very early and its importance may lie in the accumulated effects over several years and, second, parental dyslexia is a risk factor for children’s language and literacy development (e.g., Torppa, Lyytinen, Erskine, Eklund, & Lyytinen, 2010) and it may be associated with how parent–child literacy interaction at home affects children’s reading development. If the HLE effects are promotive, we should see longitudinal associations among children with and without parental dyslexia; if the effects are protective (i.e., something that mitigates risks), the effects of HLE on skills should be even stronger in families with parental dyslexia

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