Pilot study evaluating the impact of dialogic reading and shared reading at transition to primary school: early literacy skills and parental attitudes

Previous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of shared reading (SR) and dialogic reading (DR) on young children's language and literacy development. This exploratory study compared the relative impact of parental DR and shared reading interventions on 4‐year‐old children's early literacy skills and parental attitudes to reading prior to and following school entry. Parents were trained using a self‐instruction training DVD. The children's rhyme awareness, word reading, concepts about print and writing vocabulary were assessed before and after 6 weeks over the summer period and again after one term in school. Four illustrative case studies are presented, which reveal the differential impact of the interventions on the families who participated. Findings indicated that DR had a positive impact on children's enjoyment of reading, concepts about print, parent–child reading behaviours and parental attitudes to joint storybook reading. The children who experienced shared‐book reading during the intervention also demonstrated improvements in word reading. There were no changes in rhyme awareness or writing vocabulary for either group. Changes in print concept awareness were not maintained at follow‐up, but improvements in writing vocabulary and word reading scores were noted. The reasons for this are discussed with reference to the formal literacy instruction the children received during their first academic term.     

Examining an Extended Home Literacy Model: The Mediating Roles of Emergent Literacy Skills and Reading Fluency

We examined the developmental relationships between home literacy environment (parent teaching, shared book reading) and emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, rapid naming speed) in kindergarten, reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, and reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3 in a sample of Canadian children learning to read English (N = 214). Results from a latent variable model showed that parent teaching predicted letter knowledge and phonological awareness, and shared book reading predicted vocabulary and rapid naming speed after controlling for family socioeconomic status. Moreover, both parent teaching and shared book reading contributed indirectly to reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, which then mediated the effects of home literacy environment on reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3. The results suggest that the effects of home literacy environment on later reading development are distributed via more pathways than previously thought.     

Relations Among the Frequency of Shared Reading and 4-Year-Old Children's Vocabulary, Morphological and Syntax Comprehension, and Narrative Skills

Books can be a rich source of learning for children and adults alike. In the present study, the contribution of shared reading and parent literacy to a variety of child outcomes was tested. Child outcomes included measures of expressive vocabulary, morphological and syntax comprehension, and narrative ability (story grammar, cohesion, and language complexity) for book stories as well as personal stories. A total of 106 English-speaking 4-year-old children and their parents participated. As predicted, shared reading accounted for unique variance in children's expressive vocabulary and morphological knowledge after controlling for child nonverbal intelligence, parent education, and parent literacy (i.e., book exposure). Although shared reading predicted syntax comprehension, the effect was mediated by parents' own level of literacy. Contrary to expectation, shared reading was not correlated with any of the narrative measures. Interestingly, the narrative measures for telling stories from a book and telling a personal story were not related to each other and were differentially related to the other child measures, suggesting that book and personal stories may represent different genres requiring different skills.     

Shared Book Reading: Parental Goals Across the Primary Grades and Goal-Behavior Relationships in Junior Kindergarten

Two studies are reported. The first investigated goals for reading with their children held by 294 parents in a cross-sectional sample from junior kindergarten through Grade 3, how these goals are related to parent beliefs about the development of literacy skills, and how these goals may differ across the primary years. The second examined how goals relate to parent behavior. From a different sample of 119 parents completing the same goal survey and observed in shared book reading, a subsample of 42 parents with contrasting goals was selected for analysis. Findings indicated 5 distinct parent goals for shared book reading—Stimulate Development, Foster Reading, Bond With Child, Soothe Child, and Enjoy Books—with the goals of enjoying books and bonding with the child rated the highest and equally highly at each grade. These were followed by fostering reading, stimulating their child's development, and lastly soothing their child. The goal of fostering reading was more highly rated by parents of Grade 1 children than by parents of children in any other grade. Only a modest relationship between goals and beliefs was found. Finally, parents who rated fostering reading high as a goal engaged in more print-referencing behaviors and echoed more reading than did parents with contrasting goal profiles.     

Home literacy,television viewing,fidgeting and ADHD in young children

Factors related to parent ratings of young children’s (mean age = 3.72, range = 3–6) fidgeting and reports of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were examined in a nationally representative sample of US families via the National Household Education Surveys. In structural equation models, the number of television hours viewed daily was associated with more fidgeting (a sign of hyperactivity), which, in turn, was related to ADHD, when controlling for race/ethnicity, SES, family structure, autism, emotional disturbance and gender. The home literacy environment (shared reading, children’s books and library visits) was negatively associated with both fidgeting and hours of television. Home literacy was indirectly negatively related with ADHD via fidgeting. Boys and children with autism fidgeted more frequently, where as children from two-parent families were less likely to have ADHD. Overworked parents allowed more television viewing than other parents. The implications for future studies involving television viewing, home literacy, attention and hyperactivity are discussed.     

The influence of home-based reading interactions on 5-year-olds’ reading motivations and early literacy development

In order to understand the impact of home-based reading practices on young children’s literacy development, we need to consider both the types of comments made while reading as well as the affective quality of the reading interaction. Five-year-olds, during the summer prior to kindergarten, were observed reading both a familiar and an unfamiliar book with a member of their family, usually a parent but in one-third of the cases, an older sibling. Children came from either African-American or European-American families. Most of the children (about 83%) came from low income families. Both the nature of comments made about each book and the affective quality of the interactions were coded. Parents also were interviewed about the frequency with which their children engaged in reading activities at home. Children’s phonological awareness, orientation toward print, and story comprehension were assessed during the spring of kindergarten; their motivations for reading were assessed at the start of first grade.Comments about the content of the storybook were the most common type of utterance during reading interactions. Reported reading frequency was the only significant correlate of children’s early literacy-related skills. In contrast, the affective quality of the reading interaction was the most powerful predictor of children’s motivations for reading. These results emphasize the importance of the affective quality of reading interactions for fostering children’s interest in literacy.     

Can earlier literacy skills have a negative impact on future home literacy activities? Evidence from Japanese

We examined the cross‐lagged relations between the home literacy environment and literacy skills in Japanese, and whether child's gender, parents' education and child's level of literacy performance moderate the relations. One hundred forty‐two Japanese children were followed from Grades 1 to 2 and assessed on character knowledge, reading fluency and spelling. Their parents responded to a questionnaire assessing the frequency of their teaching and shared reading. Results showed that parent teaching increased and shared reading decreased from Grades 1 to 2. Cross‐lagged path analysis indicated that the literacy skills in Grade 1 were negatively associated with parent teaching in Grade 2. The results further suggested that more educated parents of higher performing children, particularly boys, adjusted their involvement to their children's literacy skills, while less educated parents of lower performing children did not. These findings indicate the importance of parents' sensitivity to their child's performance. What is already known about this topic

• Home literacy environment (HLE) plays an important role in children's literacy acquisition in Western and some East Asian contexts.
• Children's early reading skills can have an impact on later HLE.
• The direction of the relationship between HLE and children's reading skills may change from positive in Kindergarten to negative in Grade 1.

What this paper adds

• In line with the findings of previous studies in other languages, Japanese parents adaptively adjust their home literacy activities to their child's literacy skills.
• The effect of children's literacy skills on later shared reading is stronger among boys than among girls.
• More educated parents of higher performing children adjust their involvement to their child's literacy skills, while less educated parents with lower performing children do not.

Implications for theory, policy or practice

• We should encourage parents to be sensitive to their child's literacy skills to help them build a foundation that will boost future literacy development.
• This can be particularly true of less educated parents with poorly performing children.
• We should encourage educators to communicate the children's literacy achievement to their parents and also suggest the means by which HLE could be beneficial for their children's literacy development.

     

Literacy 8–12 months: what are babies learning?

Shared book reading in families is strongly linked with successful school literacy and thus with identity, belonging and participation in literate societies. From an ‘emergent’ perspective, literacy is recognised as beginning from birth. However, despite exceptions such as research into the UK program, ‘Bookstart’, most research into shared book reading does not focus on babies. In this paper, I report on interactions during shared book reading between 10 babies aged 8–12 months, and their mothers. A detailed examination of linguistic and paralinguistic features of the interactions in the ten mother–baby dyads showed varying individual patterns of language use, discourse structure and paralinguistic interaction. There were also differences in children's dispositions to engage in the activity. The findings from this study have important implications for parent support, prevention/intervention programs, and early childhood settings that include infants and toddlers.     

Use of Decontextualized Talk Across Story Contexts: How Oral Storytelling and Emergent Reading Can Scaffold Children's Development

This study examined 33 mothers' and preschoolers' oral language skills (decontextualized discourse) across an emergent reading, shared reading, and oral storytelling interaction. The sample comprised primarily African American families from various socioeconomic backgrounds, ranging from Head Start families to middle-income families. Two measures of decontextualized language were assessed—literate language features and type of talk (i.e., a coding scheme categorizing comments/questions on a continuum from contextualized to decontextualized talk). Mothers used more decontextualized language during the oral storytelling interaction versus the other interactions, but children used more during the emergent reading interaction. Mothers with advanced literacy skills were more likely to make decontextualized comments/questions and use mental/linguistic verbs during the interactions. Results are discussed in terms of implications for parent-child home literacy interventions.     

The relationship between home literacy practices and developmental trajectories of emergent literacy and conventional literacy skills for Korean children

Previous studies with English-speaking families in the North American context demonstrated that home literacy practices have positive influences on children’s literacy acquisition. The present study expands previous studies by examining how home literacy practices are related to growth trajectories of emergent literacy skills (i.e., vocabulary, letter-name knowledge, and phonological awareness) and conventional literacy skills (i.e., word reading, pseudoword reading, and spelling), and by using data from Korean children and families (N = 192). The study revealed two dimensions of home literacy practices, home reading and parent teaching. Frequent reading at home was positively associated with children’s emergent literacy skills as well as conventional literacy skills in Korean. However, children whose parents reported more frequent teaching tended to have low scores in their phonological awareness, vocabulary, word reading and pseudoword reading after accounting for home reading. These results suggest a bidirectional relationship between home literacy practices, parent teaching in particular, and children’s literacy skills such that parents adjust their teaching in response to their child’s literacy acquisition. Furthermore, cultural variation in views on parent teaching may explain these results.

NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIOECONOMIC WELL‐BEING,HOME LITERACY,AND EARLY LITERACY SKILLS OF AT‐RISK PRESCHOOLERS

In response to growing research and policy interest in the developmental contexts of early literacy, this study examined relations between neighborhood socioeconomic well‐being, home literacy (parent–child shared reading and number of books at home), and directly assessed early literacy outcomes among 551 Head Start students in the fall of preschool. In Structural Equation Models, neighborhood socioeconomic well‐being predicted home literacy, which in turn predicted early literacy (a latent variable derived from receptive vocabulary, letter‐word identification, and concepts about print). Implications for future research concerning parent involvement at home in the context of neighborhoods and the early literacy of at‐risk preschoolers is discussed.     

The Case of Three Karen Refugee Women and Their Children: Literacy Practices in a Family Literacy Context

The lack of research about the Karen, one of 135 ethnic groups from Myanmar limits literacy educators charged with educating this refugee population in public schools. In this case study the authors explore the literacy practices of Karen families when at school and in their homes and within an ESL family literacy program. The case of these refugee families and their experiences are analyzed within a sociocultural theoretical framework along with a focus on literacy adaptation through the lenses of cross-cultural studies, adult and language teachers involved in literacy practices, and literacy studies. Four core themes emerged from participant observation, including adult/parent learners’ engagement with memorization, parents’ literacy practices through reading texts aloud (recitation) to improve their speaking skills, and parents’ use of computers to engage with American media. The study offers important educational understandings of one of the world’s least known diaspora.     

Once Upon a Time: Parent–Child Dialogue and Storybook Reading in the Electronic Era

Early experiences with books predict later reading success, and an interactive shared reading style called “dialogic reading” is especially beneficial to emergent literacy. Electronic console (EC) books, CD‐rom books, and e‐book apps are designed to teach preschoolers preliteracy skills, but research has yet to systematically explore the impact of these types of books on established predictors of positive literacy outcomes. This research fills that gap with two studies investigating dialogic language and children's story comprehension in a total of 165 parent–child dyads reading battery‐operated, touch‐sensitive children's electronic console books or traditional books. Results revealed that parent–child dialogic reading and children's story comprehension were both negatively affected by the presence of electronic features. Ways in which e‐books may be altered to better serve as educational tools in this new era are discussed.     

The contribution of early home literacy activities to first grade reading and writing achievements in Arabic

This longitudinal study assessed the literacy development of native Arabic-speaking children from kindergarten to the end of first grade, focusing on the role of home literacy activities (mother–child shared book reading and joint writing). The contribution of these activities in kindergarten to children’s reading and writing at the end of first grade were evaluated, controlling for family SES and children’s early skills (vocabulary and letter naming). Eighty-eight Arabic-speaking children and their mothers participated in the study. Results revealed that family SES, children’s early skills and home literacy activities in kindergarten correlated with children’s achievements at the end of first grade. Joint writing contributed significantly to children’s literacy in first grade and the contribution of shared reading was almost significant. Joint writing was found to contribute to children’s literacy achievements in first grade beyond book reading. The study extends our knowledge on literacy acquisition in Arabic, highlighting the significance of early parent–child literacy activities as a predictor of Arabic-speaking children’s literacy achievements in school.     

Reading aloud: A way for parents to support their children's growth in literacy

Parents can form a vital link to literacy and later school success by encouraging literacy and language modeling in their daily communication with children. This article describes a study in Head Start classrooms in Florida and North Carolina where teachers used a book lending system and high quality books which they shared with children and families. Strategies for teachers to assist parents in providing support for emergent literacy are given. Ways to help families see the importance of their practices and encourage the use of these ideas as part of their daily routines are shared.     

The home literacy environment of school‐aged children with autism spectrum disorders

For typically developing (TD) children, the home literacy environment (HLE) impacts reading competence, yet few studies have explored the HLE of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We collected information about the HLE of children aged 7–13 with ASD and their TD peers via a parental questionnaire and examined whether there were any differences in home literacy practices. Subtle group differences emerged. Children with ASD and concomitant language disorder (autism language disorder [ALD]) were engaged in shared reading and reading discussion more frequently than were TD children and children with ASD and age‐appropriate language skills (autism language normal [ALN]). However, both ALN and ALD children engaged in shared reading for a shorter duration than their TD peers. Across groups, frequency and duration of independent reading were positively associated with reading ability and attitude. Thus, home literacy practices appear to reflect child characteristics, and parents are well placed to facilitate their children's literacy development through encouragement and scaffolding.

Highlights

What is already known about this topic

• The home literacy environment (HLE) impacts the reading development of typically developing children.
• Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have reading difficulties, but little is known about the HLE of children with ASD.

What this paper adds

• We examined the relationship between the HLE and reading for children with ASD.
• Poorer readers with ASD were engaged in shared reading practices more frequently than proficient readers.
• Children with ASD engaged in shared reading practices for a shorter duration than their typically developing peers.

Implications for practice

• Home literacy practices appear to reflect child characteristics.
• Parents are well placed to facilitate their children's literacy development through encouragement and scaffolding.

     

Home Environment and Family Resources to Support Literacy Interaction: Examples From Families of Children With Disabilities

Research Findings: Research on early literacy development within the family focuses primarily on parent–child interactions as they use literacy materials, typically books. However, features of the home environment and organization of family life, which provide the framework within which these interactions occur, are rarely investigated. These variables include space; time; family members' roles, responsibilities, and relationships; whether literacy activities are routines; and influences of community and culture. In this exploratory study, these physical, social, and symbolic resources of the family environment were measured using a home tour, photographs, book-reading observation, and an interview during two visits to six families who had children with mild to moderate disabilities. The data generated by these methods were then used to complete a summary measure, the Home Literacy Resource Checklist, for each family. The results indicated that the families who had previously reported reading to their child 1 to 3 times per week differed from those who had reported reading daily in resources such as help from people outside of the immediate family, existence of book-reading routines, a predictable daily schedule, use of the library, and presence of literacy materials. Practice or Policy: Further development of these measures and their use with a larger and more diverse sample are warranted so that practical knowledge about home and family life can contribute to interventions designed to improve the quantity and quality of family book reading.     

Parental involvement in literacy development: using media texts

This paper reports on a small‐scale project which aimed to build upon the existing home literacy practices of a group of three‐ and four‐year‐old children living in the UK. The purpose of the project was to develop literacy materials and resources which could be borrowed from nursery and used within the home to promote children’s literacy development. Children’s informal literacy practices at home were identified using literacy diaries, which 18 families completed over a four‐week period. These documented children’s reading of both printed and televisual texts. In addition, interviews were conducted with 15 parents and carers. The paper reports on the findings from this stage of the project, which indicate that much of children’s reading was focused on popular cultural and media texts. Media boxes were developed as a literacy resource for use by parents and children in the home. The use of these media boxes by three families was documented and the initial findings, which suggest that the use of such resources draws on families’ cultural capital, discussed.     

Examining the Relations of the Home Literacy Environments of Families of Low SES with Children’s Early Literacy Skills

This study examined variability of the home literacy environment (HLE) using multiple measures among families of low SES. The relations of the measures to each other and to children’s early oral language skills and print knowledge were reported. Considerable variability of the self-reported HLE items and the Children’s Title Checklist (CTC) but low correlations were found among items. Children’s expressive language skills were predicted by the CTC. The number of storybooks in the home predicted variance within children’s receptive vocabulary. Concepts about Print (CAP) scores were predicted by the primary caregivers’ frequency of shared reading and the age when parents began reading to children. Children’s letter name scores were not associated with any of the HLE measures in this study. The research provides additional information about the HLE within the homes of low SES using multiple measures and how they relate differentially to children’s early language and literacy skills.     

Establishing a Family Literacy Program with a Focus on Interactive Reading: The Role of Research and Accountability

Family literacy programs abound today, and many try to be all things to all participating families. Funding has eroded for programs of long length and shorter length programs need a specific focus to aim for a modicum of success. This article provides an overview of the importance of interactive reading for children’s future success in school, providing clear reasons for having it as a program focus. Specific research-based interactive reading behaviors which act as program objectives and a linked interactive reading assessment for accountability purposes are described. Methods of serving and recruiting diverse families are also explored. An example of a program is provided to demonstrate how to design a family literacy program of manageable length that leads to measurable gains in joint reading behaviors.