Based on the Home Literacy Model, this study explored a refined model of home literacy activities and their relations with children’s emergent literacy skills in a linguistic and socio-economic diverse sample of 214 Dutch kindergartners (mean age 4 years and 7 months, 46% girls and 29% monolingual speakers of Dutch). The study examined a typology of home literacy activities that explicitly addressed didactic approach and was not restricted to activities involving print. Next, the study explored the relations between activity types and children’s emergent literacy skills. Three activity categories were identified: code, oral language exposure and oral language teaching activities. Results of multilevel structural equation modeling showed that all types of home literacy activities were related to children’s oral language skills, although the association between oral language teaching and oral language skills was negative. Oral language skills were associated with children’s code and phonological skills. The outcomes indicate the existence of a more nuanced pattern of interrelations between elements of the home literacy environment and children’s literacy skills in this diverse sample than observed before.
#2Eliane Segers(Radboud University Nijmegen)H-Index: 25
Last. Ludo Verhoeven(Radboud University Nijmegen)H-Index: 69
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Children's abilities to process the phonological structure of words are important predictors of their literacy development. In the current study, we examined the interrelatedness between implicit (i.e., speech decoding) and explicit (i.e., phonological awareness) phonological abilities, and especially the role therein of lexical specificity (i.e., the ability to learn to recognize spoken words based on only minimal acoustic-phonetic differences). We tested 75 Dutch monolingual and 64 Turkish–Dut...
One hundred and ten English-speaking children schooled in French were followed from kindergarten to Grade 2 (Mage :T 1= 5;6, T2 = 6;4, T3 = 6;11, T4 = 7;11). The findings provided strong support for the Home Literacy Model (Senechal & LeFevre, 2002) because in this sample the home language was independent of the language of instruction. The informal literacy environment at home predicted growth in English receptive vocabulary from kindergarten to Grade 1, whereas parent reports of the formal lit...
Abstract The purpose of this study was to propose and test a model of children’s home numeracy experience based on Senechal and LeFevre’s home literacy model ( Child Development, 73 (2002) 445–460). Parents of 183 children starting kindergarten in the fall (median child age = 58 months) completed an early home learning experiences questionnaire. Most of the children whose parents completed the questionnaire were recruited for numeracy and literacy testing 1 year later (along with 32 children fro...
Evaluating model fit in nonlinear multilevel structural equation models (MSEM) presents a challenge as no adequate test statistic is available. Nevertheless, using a product indicator approach a likelihood ratio test for linear models is provided which may also be useful for nonlinear MSEM. The main problem with nonlinear models is that product variables are nonnormally distributed. Although robust test statistics have been developed for linear SEM to ensure valid results under the condition of ...
Last. Niki Tziraki(UoC: University of Crete)H-Index: 3
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Abstract The present study examined how the home literacy and numeracy environment in kindergarten influences reading and math acquisition in grade 1. Eighty-two Greek children from mainly middle socioeconomic backgrounds were followed from kindergarten to grade 1 and were assessed on measures of nonverbal intelligence, emergent literacy skills, early math concepts, verbal counting, reading, and math fluency. The parents of the children also responded to a questionnaire regarding the frequency o...
article i nfo Article history: The main aim of the study was to identify subgroups of children based on the associations between the reported frequency of maternal teaching of reading and children's reading skills, and whether these sub- groups differ with respect to mother-related (i.e., education, controlling behavior, and emotions in home- work situations) and child-related (i.e., reading habits and gender) background factors. Data were gathered from 1460 mother-child dyads. The reading skill...
In this study, the relations among a range of literacy-related home practices and children’s acquisition of language and literacy at the outset of preschool are examined in a sample of linguistically diverse children from low-income families in the United States. Specifically, the study focuses on sources of variation found in mother–child conversations while reminiscing and book sharing, in frequency of book reading, in parent use of strategies to teach print skills, and in the child’s interest...
Reading and writing are necessary prerequisites for a successful school career. Therefore it is important to identify precursor variables which predict these abilities early in order to identify children possibly at risk of developing reading or spelling difficulties. Relevant precursors include letter knowledge, phonological awareness (PA), vocabulary, and cognitive abilities. Moreover, also social aspects such as the socioeconomic status of the family (SES), the migration background and the “H...
Rhyme perception is an important predictor for future literacy. Assessing rhyme abilities, however, commonly requires children to make explicit rhyme judgements on single words. Here we explored whether infants already implicitly process rhymes in natural rhyming contexts (child songs) and whether this response correlates with later vocabulary size. In a passive listening ERP study, 10.5 month-old Dutch infants were exposed to rhyming and non-rhyming child songs. Two type of rhyme effects were a...
Many studies have reported that early interventions on language and early literacy skills are important for preventing later reading difficulties at primary school. The aim of the study is to asses...
Literacy is a broad term that includes reading and writing abilities, as well as cognitive skills that are socially and culturally constructed. Thus, it is essential to take the family context and home literacy environment (HLE) into consideration when discussing literacy. HLE affects reading and writing development via (in)formal literacy experiences focused on the development of oral language and code skills via exposure, child-centered and instructed activities. In this study, we investigated...
#1Eke Krijnen(EUR: Erasmus University Rotterdam)H-Index: 1
#2R. van Steensel(EUR: Erasmus University Rotterdam)H-Index: 1
Last. Sabine Severiens(EUR: Erasmus University Rotterdam)H-Index: 15
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The current study examined the use of a newly developed instrument for measuring parental literacy beliefs in a highly diverse urban Dutch sample of 35 parents, participating in a family literacy p...
#1Anne-Marie Adams(LJMU: Liverpool John Moores University)H-Index: 14
#2Elena Soto-Calvo(LJMU: Liverpool John Moores University)H-Index: 3
Last. Fiona R. Simmons(LJMU: Liverpool John Moores University)H-Index: 12
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Aspects of the preschool home learning environment which may foster reading development have been identified, although their relationships with spelling and writing remain unclear. The present study explored associations between the preschool home literacy environment (HLE), language and nonverbal abilities and children’s spelling and writing skills measured two years later. A parental questionnaire recorded the reported frequency of pre-schoolers’ code- and meaning-related home literacy experie...
Last. Rauno Parrila(Macquarie University)H-Index: 45
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Early literacy is largely acquired through child-led learning, yet current ways to support and enhance it may present problems of coercion and adult control. The Following in our Footsteps II inter...
We examined the relation between home literacy environment (HLE) and early literacy development in a sample of children learning four alphabetic orthographies varying in orthographic consistency (English, Dutch, German, and Greek). Seven hundred and fourteen children were followed from Grade 1 to Grade 2 and tested on emergent literacy skills (vocabulary, letter knowledge, phonological awareness) at the beginning of Grade 1 and on word reading fluency and spelling at the end of Grade 1, the begi...
