Children's Emergent Literacy Research Articles

Is There a Genetic Confound in the Relation of Home Literacy Environment with Children's Reading Skills? A Familial Control Method Approach

AbstractWe examined the relation between home literacy environment (HLE), parents' reading skills, and children's emergent literacy skills (pinyin letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and vocabulary) and reading (word reading and reading comprehension) in a sample of 168 Chinese children (Mage = 74.26 months) followed from kindergarten to Grade 1. Results of structural equation modeling showed that code‐related HLE activities and access to literacy resources continued to predict children's emergent literacy skills after controlling for the effects of family's socioeconomic status and both parents' reading skills. Parents' reading skills also exerted a direct effect on children's reading comprehension. These findings suggest that HLE exerts a true environmental effect on children's reading skills that is not due to a genetic confound.

Delving into Word and Print Awareness in 4-Year-Old Children

This research delves into the emergent literacy skills of preschool-aged children through a thorough examination using the Preschool Word and Print Awareness Examination (PWPA). A diverse sample of 45 typically developing children, aged between 3 years and 11 months to 5 years and 1 month, participated in the study. Rigorous screening criteria ensured a homogeneous and suitable sample for the emergent literacy enhancement program. The PWPA, aligned with Marie Clay's interactive literacy assessment paradigm, assessed children's word and print awareness through engaging exercises integrated into shared storybook reading routines. Results unveiled significant variability in individual and overall performance, providing nuanced insights into the developmental trajectories of emergent literacy skills. The study focused on two key components of the PWPA: Words in Print and Print Concepts, evaluated through carefully selected storybooks. Findings indicated challenges and strengths in children's ability to recognize written words and understand foundational print concepts, emphasizing the need for early intervention in addressing emerging literacy issues. The discussion highlighted potential applications of PWPA in literacy screening programs, individualized goal-setting, and intervention planning. This research contributes to the understanding of preschool children's emergent literacy skills, providing valuable insights for educators, speech-language pathologists, and researchers to foster proficient readers in early childhood.

Investigating if high-quality kindergarten teachers sustain the pre-K boost to children's emergent literacy skill development in North Carolina.

This study tested the hypothesis that high-quality kindergarten teachers sustain and amplify the skill development of children who participated in North Carolina's NC Pre-K program during the previous year, compared to matched non-participants (N = 17,330; 42% African American, 40% Non-Hispanic White, 15% Hispanic; 51% male; Mage = 4.5 years at fall of pre-K). Kindergarten teacher quality was measured using a "value-added" approach. NC Pre-K participants outperformed non-participants in the fall of kindergarten (β = .22) and 11% of this boost remained evident by the spring of kindergarten. Higher value-added teachers promoted the skill development of all children (β = .30 in the spring) but did not differentially benefit the skill development of former NC Pre-K participants compared to non-participants.

Statistical learning and children's emergent literacy in rural Côte d'Ivoire.

Studies of non-linguistic statistical learning (SL) have often linked performance in SL tasks with differences in language outcomes. Most of these studies have focused on Western and high-income educational contexts, but children worldwide learn in radically different educational systems and communities, and often in a second language. In the west African nation of Côte d'Ivoire, children enter fifth grade (CM-1) with widely varying ages and literacy skills. Across three iteratively-developed experiments, 157 children, age 8-15 years, in rural communities in the greater-Adzópe region of Côte d'Ivoire watched sequences of cartoon images with embedded triplet patterns on touchscreen tablets, while performing a target-detection task. We assessed these tablet-based adaptations of non-linguistic visual SL and asked whether the children's individual differences in performance on the SL tasks were related to their first and second language and literacy skills. We found group-level evidence that children used the statistical regularities in the image sequence to gradually decrease their response times, but their responses on post-test discrimination did not reflect this learning. When evaluating the correlation between SL and language skills, individual differences related to other task demands predicted oral language skills shared by first and second languages, while SL better predicted second language print skills. These findings suggest that non-linguistic SL paradigms can measure similar skills in Ivorian children as previous samples, but they also echo recent calls for further cross-cultural validation, greater internal reliability, and tests for confounding variables (such as processing speed) in studies of individual differences in statistical learning. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We iteratively adapted three visual statistical learning studies for children in rural Côte d'Ivoire. Group-level analyses indicates that the children learn the underlying statistical regularities. Individual-differences analyses reveal some evidence that the statistical learning measure is also correlated with task demands that may be driven by cross-cultural differences. Like previous research, statistical learning is correlated with second language literacy, but we did not find a relationship between SL and oral language skills in first and second languages.

Early Childhood Teachers’ Emergent Literacy Data Practices

Despite a growing focus on access to and use of emergent literacy assessment in early childhood, little is known about early childhood teachers’ data practices and their associations with children's emergent literacy skills. A questionnaire was used to confirm and elaborate findings from prior qualitative work (Schachter & Piasta, 2022) investigating U.S. teachers’ emergent literacy data practices. We focused on how teachers gathered data (data gathering), what they learned from those data (data knowledge), and how they used those data in their practice (data use) along with associations between the practices and children's emergent literacy skills. Overall, teachers reported engaging in multiple data practices, often with high levels of knowledge about children's emergent literacy skills. A small set of data practices, related to data gathering and data knowledge, were associated with children's emergent literacy skills. However, there were also some unexpected negative associations between children's outcomes and teachers’ data practices.

My child lags behind: Parents’ perceptions of children's needs for language support, their home-literacy practices, and children's language skills

The home literacy environment (HLE) in terms of providing frequent and high-quality access to oral and written language is a well-established, positive predictor of children's language and emergent literacy development. However, little is known about parents’ perception of children's needs for language support and how this perception in terms of a compensatory motive for fostering children's language skills relates to parents’ home-literacy practices, and their children's language skills. To examine these questions, we conducted a study with 193 preschool children and their parents. We assessed parents’ motive to foster their children to compensate for a perceived unfavorable language development, multiple indicators of the HLE, and children's language skills. Parents’ compensatory motive proved to reflect the needs of their children as children of parents reporting a compensatory motive displayed lower language skills than children of parents who indicated no such motive. However, parents with and without compensatory motive did not differ in terms of reported home-literacy practices. There were also differences concerning the correlational pattern between home-literacy practices and children's language development, with correlations being generally weaker and sometimes even negative in the compensatory group. The results suggest that the relationship between home-literacy practices and children's language development might be decidedly complex and less straightforward than often assumed.

Bias Starts Early. Let's Start Now: Developing an Anti‐Racist, Anti‐Bias Book Collection for Infants and Toddlers

AbstractDuring the first year of life, children begin to develop preferences for their own racial group over others. To interrupt the development of these and other biases during infancy and toddlerhood, educators can use books to promote anti‐racist and anti‐bias thinking and behaviors in children, while also supporting children's emergent literacy. This article presents criteria for educators to consider as they curate a collection of developmentally appropriate books for infant/toddler classroom libraries. In doing so, educators can expose children to positive representations of others and cultivate respect for children and their communities. We offer practical information about how educators can use these books to promote anti‐racist and anti‐bias education during the first years of life.

The unique and compensatory effects of home and classroom learning activities on Migrant and Seasonal Head Start children's Spanish and English emergent literacy skills.

Children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) are among the most underprivileged, underserved groups in the United States. The current study examined how home and classroom language and literacy experiences uniquely and interactively contributed to MSFW children's emergent literacy skills in English and Spanish. Participants were 255 Spanish-English dual language learning children (M age = 49 mon; 98.3% Latino/Hispanic) and their parents and 47 teachers, drawn from the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Study. Parents reported how often the target children engaged in language and literacy activities (i.e., teaching letters, words, or numbers, book-reading, singing, and storytelling) with their family members. Teachers reported how often the target children engaged in classroom language and literacy activities (e.g., book-reading, learning letters, retelling stories, etc.). Children's emergent literacy skills in English and Spanish were assessed by standard tests. After controlling for demographic variables, home and classroom language and literacy activities uniquely predicted children's emergent literacy skills in Spanish, but not in English. Additionally, home and classroom activities compensated one another in supporting children's English and Spanish emergent literacy development. That is, language and literacy activities in one context showed a stronger effect for children who experienced less frequent activities in the other context. Together, these findings shed light on ways to support MSFW children's emergent literacy skills and reveal the importance of integrating and connecting home and school learning experiences.

The oral language and emergent literacy skills of preschoolers: Early childhood teachers' self-reported role, knowledge and confidence.

Early childhood teachers (ECTs) play a significant role in equipping children with oral language and emergent literacy skills ahead of school entry. They are well positioned to play a vital role in ensuring preschool children receive a high-quality preschool curriculum to prepare them for later literacy learning. The purpose of this study was to explore early career ECTs' views and confidence regarding their role in providing preschoolers with oral language and emergent literacy support and to examine their perceptions of their preservice preparation. Nine Australian early career ECTs were recruited via purposive sampling for an in-depth, semi-structured interview. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Participants attached strong significance to their role in facilitating children's oral language growth and emergent literacy skills and reported a range of practices to support children's learning. However, they rarely referred to using established language facilitation strategies or using dialogic book reading prompts. Further, emergent literacy concepts such as phonological awareness and print awareness were not routinely described as features of participants' classroom activities. Participants did not consistently make a clear conceptual distinction between the constructs of oral language and emergent literacy and often used these terms interchangeably. Notably, participants indicated that they did not feel confident in their ability to identify preschool children who were not meeting developmental language milestones and reported that they felt poorly equipped to do so by their preservice training. ECTs' strong willingness to support preschool children's oral language and emergent literacy skills may be hindered by gaps in their knowledge; these may contribute to important and missed opportunities for identifying and supporting preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. What is already known on this subject? High-quality learning experiences in preschool are important for maximising preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. Early childhood teachers can play an important role in facilitating this development and preparing children for later literacy learning. What this paper adds to existing knowledge? The study findings provide insight into ECTs' perceptions of their role and support in developing children's oral language and emergent literacy skills. The results indicated ECTs did not feel confident with their knowledge of children's language milestones or identifying children with language difficulties. Participants reported that their preservice training left them underprepared in the area of oral language. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? ECTs demonstrated a strong willingness to support preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy skills. However, their self-reported knowledge gaps and low confidence may have implications for the early detection of children who are not reaching language developmental milestones in a timely way.

Home literacy in the digital era: The role of mobile screen media frequency in a U.S. state

AbstractStudies suggest that mobile screen media can play a positive role in young children's language and literacy development. However, the role of mobile screen media in the home literacy environment of pre‐school aged children has not been widely explored. Currently, it is unclear whether the amount of time on mobile devices has any association with their language and literacy development. The present study therefore explored the frequency of mobile digital media use and its relationship to children's language and emergent literacy skills, and whether and how child and family characteristics may have mediated this relationship. The sample consisted of 881 children in Massachusetts (Mage = 5.16; 69% White, non‐Hispanic; 48% female) who completed language and literacy assessments on letter/word recognition, phonological awareness, vocabulary, syntax and language. Parents completed a survey on their child's literacy and technology activities at home. Results suggest that any associations between mobile screen media and language and literacy development may not be explained by quantity of use, but rather the nature of use. No robust statistically significant associations were found between the frequency of mobile media device use and children's language and literacy skills after controlling for key child and family background characteristics. Although rhyme awareness scores were significantly related to frequency of mobile device use, the association was weak. Thus, further research should explore types of activities, app features, and interactions that are important for children's development of language and literacy skills when using mobile media devices.Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Pre‐school aged children are spending an increasing amount of time with mobile screens. Mobile screen media can play a positive role in young children's language and literacy development. What this paper adds This paper describes the frequency in which pre‐school children in one US state use mobile screen media. The results of this paper provide suggest that there are no associations between mobile screen media and language and literacy development. This paper discusses how several home environmental factors play a role in children's early development of language and literacy. Implications for practice and/or policy Practitioners and teachers working with families of pre‐school children can focus on supporting the quality of interactions children have with mobile media rather than focusing on limiting the amount of time children spend with mobile media. Parents, practitioners and teachers should become familiar with educational media available and learn about effective ways to use it especially among children from low‐income household who engage with mobile media at higher rates.

Parent-child shared book reading mediates the impact of socioeconomic status on heritage language learners’ emergent literacy

The promotion of parent-child shared book reading for the development of children's literacy is a vital component of early literacy evidence-based recommendations. A robust body of research demonstrates that, regardless of socioeconomic status, parent-child shared book reading promotes monolingual children's literacy. However, despite the growing population of heritage language learners in the United States, those who grow up in homes where a familial language is spoken but receive English instruction at school, parent-child shared book reading research among heritage language learners remains scarce. Further, the impact of parent-child shared book reading is likely to alter the influence of family's socioeconomic status on heritage language learners’ emergent literacy development. Here, parent-child shared book reading and children's emergent literacy were examined using latent variable path analyses in a national sample of 965 heritage language learners ages 2 to 6 years old. Parent-child shared book reading mediated the effect of socioeconomic status on heritage language learners' emergent literacy.

Learning to eRead: A qualitative exploration of young children's developing eReader practices

AbstractBackgroundPrevious eBook studies were primarily cross‐sectional surveys or experimental studies providing a snapshot of the impact of eBook reading on children's emergent literacy skills. Scholars have yet to characterize more fine grain developmental progressions in the use of eReaders and similar devices – that is, how children's eBook‐related practices evolve over time and what might be changing behaviourally over the course of repeated readings for any age group.ObjectivesThis is the first study to characterize young children's (2 to 3 years) use of eReaders over the span of several months under semi‐naturalistic conditions.MethodsTwenty five mothers and their 2.5‐ to 3.5‐year‐old child engaged in a series of documentation exercises and interviews around use of a novel eReader device. This study is exploratory and deductive in nature, and hypotheses were not set forth a priori.Results and ConclusionsThe results of the present study suggest that children develop increasing mastery of the affordances of eReaders as their device exposure increases. Over time, their ability to independently engage with devices rapidly increases. They transition from needing technical support from parents and high levels of encouragement to attend to literacy content over hotspots, to sometimes using the device independently, to considering the device a mainstay in their home – no longer a novelty.Implications for practice and/or policyThe developmental usability patterns noted in this study extend our naturalistic understanding of young children's dexterity with digital devices and point to methodological approaches that might yield more ecologically valid findings in future studies.

Family engagement in early learning opportunities at home and in early childhood education centers in Colombia

Family engagement in early learning and education is considered a key predictor of children's development. However, little is known about the link between family engagement in early learning opportunities in sociocultural diverse contexts, particularly in low- and-middle-income countries. This study examined the associations of family engagement in home learning activities (e.g., reading books, naming things) and in early childhood care and education centers (ECCE; e.g., attending meetings or workshops, helping inside the classroom) with young children's emergent literacy and numeracy, social-emotional functioning, motor development, and executive functions, as measured through direct assessment. Data came from a nationally-representative sample of public ECCE centers in Colombia serving 3–5-year-old children (N = 3069). Multilevel model analyses showed that home-based family engagement was associated with higher emergent numeracy, emergent literacy, social-emotional functioning, and motor development, whereas center-based family engagement was associated only with higher emergent numeracy and literacy development. These results suggest that interventions and policies designed to improve family engagement in early learning opportunities both at the ECCE centers and at the home could have positive and independent effects on early childhood development.

The Impact of E-Book Reading on Young Children's Emergent Literacy Skills: An Analytical Review.

Young children’s use of digital devices is increasing as we progress through the 21st century and handheld and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, have become increasingly available. While older children using tablets to read has been more broadly investigated, less is known about the impacts of digital reading on children at the stage of literacy acquisition. An analytical review was conducted on the effects of interactive e-book interventions for young children’s literacy development when compared to (a) listening to print books, (b) regular school programs, and (c) reading non-enhanced and non-interactive e-books. A significant additional beneficial effect of e-book interventions was found for phonological awareness and vocabulary learning based on data from 1138 children in 14 randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies. When e-books are properly selected and used, children develop literacy skills equally well and sometimes better than with print books. Additionally, e-book interventions outperformed the regular school program in the development of literacy skills. Similarly, enhanced e-book conditions revealed benefits over the non-enhanced e-book interventions in literacy skill acquisition. The impact of these findings related to health issues, e-book design, disadvantaged populations, and adult-led e-book sharing is discussed.

Developmental Relations Between Home Literacy Environment, Reading Interest, and Reading Skills: Evidence From a 3-Year Longitudinal Study.

We examined the bidirectional relations between home literacy environment, reading interest, and children's emergent literacy and reading skills in a sample of 172 English-speaking Canadian children (Mage =75.87months) followed from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Results of cross-lagged analysis revealed that the reading comprehension activities (RCA) at home positively predicted children's reading skills at the end of Grade 2 and the reading skills negatively predicted the RCA in Grade 3. Parent-rated reading interest was bidirectionally related to reading skills, whereas child-rated reading interest was only predicted by earlier reading skills, but not vice versa. These findings suggest that parents are sensitive to their children's reading performance and modify their involvement accordingly.

Learning to read: where should early childhood educators begin?

AbstractLearning to read is a process that begins well before children commence formal schooling and well before children learn to decode print. Children's early reading skills are, first and foremost, foundationally contingent upon children's oral language and phonological awareness proficiencies – skills that can be mapped across a continuum of development from speech‐to‐print. Nine educators from Victoria, Australia, were interviewed, asked to share their understandings and planning for literacy learning when working with 2–3‐year‐old children. Findings showed that the educators exposed children to opportunities to develop their communication and oral language skills, privileging general conversation and storybook reading. However, some educators appeared unaware of the various stages of phonological awareness and/or appeared to privilege phonics over and above earlier stages of development. The authors recommend that educators, managers and course designers seeking to support young children's emergent literacy development use a framework such as the one presented in this paper to evaluate their knowledges/practices/programmes and that further, larger scale research be conducted that compares educators' interview data with what they do in practice.

Latent class growth trajectories of letter name knowledge during pre-kindergarten and kindergarten

A major developmental task for young children in the United States involves the acquisition of knowledge about the letters in the English alphabet. In the current study, we examined the growth trajectories of children's letter name knowledge (LNK) during pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. A diverse sample of 1015 children was drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten. Latent class growth analyses were used to identify three heterogeneous classes of children based on their LNK growth trajectories. Children's fall-of-pre-kindergarten language skills were associated with trajectory class membership, which in turn was associated with children's spring-of-kindergarten literacy skills. We also found that the association between children's fall-of-pre-kindergarten language skills and spring-of-kindergarten literacy skills was partially mediated by trajectory class membership. These findings point to the importance of LNK skill development as a marker variable to monitor and support children's emergent literacy development.

No Differences in Code-Related Emergent Literacy Skills in Well-Matched 4-Year-Old Children With and Without ASD.

This study used data from a prospective community-based sample and compared the code-related emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness and letter knowledge) of 4-year-old children with ASD (n = 36) to their peers without ASD (n = 36), matched for age, gender, socio-economic status, language ability, and nonverbal cognition. We also compared groups on parent-reported home literacy measures, including the amount of time their child enjoyed being read to. There were no significant group differences in emergent literacy, indicating that an ASD diagnosis was not related to children's emergent literacy performance. We found no group differences in parent-reported home literacy experiences. This highlights the need for careful consideration of factors beyond ASD traits that may influence literacy outcomes in this population.

Maternal Locus of Control in Pregnancy and Reading and Spelling Abilities of the Offspring: A Longitudinal Birth Cohort Study.

Maternal locus of control (LOC) as measured in pregnancy has been shown to be associated with parenting attitudes and behaviors as well as with children’s comprehension of mathematical and scientific concepts. The present study evaluates whether the child’s emergent literacy skills are similarly associated with maternal LOC: i.e., do children of prenatally externally oriented mothers perform less well on literacy tasks compared with their peers whose mothers are prenatally internally oriented. Prenatal measures collected within a United Kingdom birth cohort (ALSPAC) including a maternal LOC measure together with behavior and lifestyle details were analyzed. Later in childhood, offspring at ages 7 and 9 were tested by ALSPAC for spelling, phoneme awareness, reading comprehension, speed and accuracy. All achievement test scores showed a deficit among children of prenatally externally oriented mothers as compared to children of internally controlled women. Further analysis found that differences in diet, lifestyle and mother/child activities mediated approximately 60% of the deficit between children of external and internal mothers. A sensitivity analysis using national reading test results demonstrated similar results with these children. If further research confirms a causal relationship, programs to increase internality in adolescent girls or newly pregnant women may result in long-term benefits to their future offspring.

Fostering Preschoolers' Emergent Literacy: Recommendations for Enhanced Literacy Experiences and Collaborative Instruction

Purpose Emergent literacy skills involve both the code-related and oral language skills that serve as the foundation for successful reading and writing development. Code-related skills have been found to be highly predictive of decoding skills for preschool children and continue to exert a strong influence through the early elementary grades. Likewise, early oral language skills make important contributions to later reading comprehension. Accordingly, the preschool period is a critical time for supporting and facilitating growth in children's emergent literacy skills. Speech-language pathologists working in preschool settings can play an integral role in enhancing literacy instruction through their specialized knowledge of linguistic concepts and language development. The following article aims to provide practitioners with evidence-based strategies for supporting the development of preschoolers' emergent literacy skills in the context of shared book reading and making experience books. The article also outlines recommendations for fostering effective collaborations with teachers to provide high-quality classroom experiences for all preschool children. Conclusion Providing preschool children with a print-rich environment along with clear and explicit explanations, scaffolding, and ample opportunities for practice can help to enhance the quality of language and literacy instruction. Although this article specifically focuses on shared book reading and making experience books, it is important to note that the strategies discussed here apply to a variety of activities. Speech-language pathologists are encouraged to actively collaborate with teachers to integrate these strategies into various classroom activities to optimize learning and promote children's emergent literacy skills.