Home literacy activities and their influence on early literacy skills.

The relationship between the home environments of 66 children and their language and literacy development was examined. After accounting for child age, parent education, and child ability as indexed by scores on a rapid automatized naming task and Block Design of the WPPSI-R, shared book reading at home made no contribution to the prediction of the literacy skills of letter name and letter sound knowledge in kindergarten. In contrast, home activities involving letters predicted modest and statistically significant amounts of variance. For the areas of receptive vocabulary and phonological sensitivity, neither shared book reading nor letter activities were predictive. Follow-up to mid-Grade 2 underscored the importance of letter name/sound knowledge and phonological sensitivity in kindergarten in accounting for individual differences in later achievement in reading comprehension, phonological spelling, and conventional spelling.     

Alphabet knowledge and early literacy skills in French beginning readers

Numerous studies in various alphabetic languages have shown that letter knowledge is a strong predictor of reading and spelling achievement. However, this issue has rarely been addressed in French. Three studies are reported in order to examine the question of the development of letter knowledge in connection with literacy skills in French beginning readers before and during formal instruction. The level of the different alphabet-related skills was studied in kindergarten and two short longitudinal studies were conducted while the children were receiving formal instruction. In Study 1, upper-case letters resulted in higher scores. In Study 2, in the case of consonants, no significant advantage of phoneme position in letter names was found. In Study 3 children with good letter-name knowledge in kindergarten performed better in reading and spelling tasks in first grade. Finally, alphabet knowledge is viewed as a multi-faceted type of knowledge, which includes different skills such as alphabet reciting, letter naming and letter-sound knowledge. An early ability in this domain could be highly predictive of subsequent literacy development.     

Early literacy and early numeracy: the value of including early literacy skills in the prediction of numeracy development

The purpose of this study was to examine whether early literacy skills uniquely predict early numeracy skills development. During the first year of the study, 69 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers were assessed on the Preschool Early Numeracy Skills (PENS) test and the Test of Preschool Early Literacy Skills (TOPEL). Participants were assessed again a year later on the PENS test and on the Applied Problems and Calculation subtests of the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Achievement. Three mixed effect regressions were conducted using Time 2 PENS, Applied Problems, and Calculation as the dependent variables. Print Knowledge and Vocabulary accounted for unique variance in the prediction of Time 2 numeracy scores. Phonological Awareness did not uniquely predict any of the mathematics domains. The findings of this study identify an important link between early literacy and early numeracy development.     

Six-year-olds' perception of home literacy environment and its influence on children's literacy enjoyment,frequency, and early literacy skills

Home literacy environment (HLE) makes an important contribution to children's reading acquisition in early years. Even though some research on children's perception exists, children's reports about HLE have been neglected. The present study focuses on N = 281 six-year-old's reports about HLE and its influences on literacy enjoyment, frequency, and early literacy skills. Parents' educational background was expected to predict children-perceived HLE. A positive impact of active HLE on literacy enjoyment and frequency were found. HLE also mediates the relation between parents' background and enjoyment. The importance of children's perspective on HLE regarding family literacy programs is discussed.     

Genetic and environmental influences on early literacy skills across school grade contexts

Recent research suggests that the etiology of reading achievement can differ across environmental contexts. In the US, schools are commonly assigned grades (e.g. ‘A’, ‘B’) often interpreted to indicate school quality. This study explored differences in the etiology of early literacy skills for students based on these school grades. Participants included twins drawn from the Florida Twin Project on Reading (n = 1313 pairs) aged 4 to 10 years during the 2006–07 school year. Early literacy skills were assessed with DIBELS subtests: Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), Initial Sound Fluency (ISF), Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF). School grade data were retrieved from the Florida Department of Education. Multi‐group analyses were conducted separately for subsamples defined by ‘A’ or ‘non‐A’ schools, controlling for school‐level socioeconomic status. Results indicated significant etiological differences on pre‐reading skills (ISF, LNF, and PSF), but not word‐level reading skills (ORF and NWF). There was a consistent trend of greater environmental influences on pre‐reading skills in non‐A schools, arguably representing ‘poorer’ environmental contexts than the A schools. Importantly, this is the case outside of resources linked with school‐level SES, indicating that something about the direct environment on pre‐reading skills in the non‐A school context is more variable than for A schools.     

Emergent literacy skills and training time uniquely predict variability in responses to phonemic awareness training in disadvantaged kindergartners

The factors that predicted variability in responses to phonemic awareness training were investigated in kindergartners who live in poverty. Treatment children (n=42) received both analytic and synthetic phonemic awareness computer-assisted instruction, while controls (n=34) received no special training. Mean age of participants was approximately 5 years 7 months. Pretests included initial phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, word-level reading, invented spelling, vocabulary knowledge, and print concepts. Spelling skills emerged as the best consistent predictor of variability in phonemic awareness in response to instruction. We propose that relations between phonemic awareness and spelling skills are bidirectional: Spelling influenced growth in phonemic awareness and phonemic awareness contributed to growth in spelling skills. The amount of exposure that children had to the treatment intervention contributed uniquely to individual differences in posttest levels of phonemic awareness and spelling.     

Reception class predictors of literacy skills

Background. In the last decade, there has been a growing interest, both in the UK and abroad, in developing early screening tests for dyslexia that can be used with very young children. In addition to measures of literacy achievement, such screening tests typically aim to identify underlying difficulties, such as phonological deficits, that might hinder a child's educational progress. The Dyslexia Early Screening Test (DEST; Nicolson & Fawcett, 1996 ) is an example of such a test that combines attainment and diagnostic indicators. Aim. The study reported assessed the ability of the DEST to predict future literacy skills in contrast with the prediction afforded by school‐based measures, such as letter knowledge. Sample. Participants were 45 boys attending a reception class, with a mean age of 4.87 years at the start of the study and 6.63 years at the end. Methods. Measures of literacy skills, phonological awareness, verbal memory, motor skill, and auditory processing were assessed using the DEST as the initial screening tool at Phase 1. Measures of letter knowledge, non‐word reading, and rhyme judgment were taken at Phase 2. Phase 3 measures, 14 months after the start of the study, comprised single‐word reading and spelling. At Phase 4, some 22 months after the beginning of the study, measures of reading and spelling ability were assessed again. Results. Individual subtests of the DEST were more predictive of later literacy skills than the global screening test's score (the ‘at risk quotient’). Better predictors were the DEST subtest of sound order and rapid automatized naming, together with the school attainment measure of letter knowledge. Conclusions. Although some DEST subtests did offer predictors of future literacy skills, school‐based measures of letter knowledge may be equally valid as assessment measures. Additionally, the results question the usefulness of combining measures to form an ‘at risk’ index of future literacy difficulties, particularly in the age range assessed.     

Singaporean kindergartners' phonological awareness and English writing skills

This article describes the phonological awareness and English writing skills among a sample of 297 Singaporean kindergarten children, stratified by ethnicity (Chinese, Malay, and Indian), and examines the relationship between oral language and writing skills in this multilingual population. Overall, Singaporean kindergartners, nearly all of whom were bilingual, scored higher on English writing but lower on English oral language skills than U.S. norms. Despite literacy instruction that emphasized whole-word memorization, phonological awareness statistically significantly predicted English writing scores, controlling for English vocabulary, ethnicity, sex, and an interaction between English vocabulary and sex. The current study's findings highlight the possibility of developing high literacy skills among bilingual learners with low oral language skills. In addition, the study demonstrates children's development of phonological awareness in the absence of phonological awareness or phonics instruction and supports the theory that both alphabetic (phonological) processes and logographic (whole-word) processes contribute to successful English literacy achievement.     

Teaching early braille literacy skills within a stimulus equivalence paradigm to children with degenerative visual impairments

Despite the need for braille literacy, there has been little attempt to systematically evaluate braille-instruction programs. The current study evaluated an instructive procedure for teaching early braille-reading skills with 4 school-aged children with degenerative visual impairments. Following a series of pretests, braille instruction involved providing a sample braille letter and teaching the selection of the corresponding printed letter from a comparison array. Concomitant with increases in the accuracy of this skill, we assessed and captured the formation of equivalence classes through tests of symmetry and transitivity among the printed letters, the corresponding braille letters, and their spoken names.     

Improving the writing skills of college students

Advanced writing skills are an important aspect of academic performance as well as of subsequent work- related performance. However, American students rarely attain advanced scores on assessments of writing skills (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2002). In order to achieve higher levels of writing performance, the working memory demands of writing processes should be reduced so that executive attention is free to coordinate interactions among them. This can in theory be achieved through deliberate practice that trains writers to develop executive control through repeated opportunities to write and through timely and relevant feedback. Automated essay scoring software may offer a way to alleviate the intensive grading demands placed on instructors and, thereby, substantially increase the amount of writing practice that students receive.     

Development of emergent literacy and early reading skills in preschool children: evidence from a latent-variable longitudinal study

Although research has identified oral language, print knowledge, and phonological sensitivity as important emergent literacy skills for the development of reading, few studies have examined the relations between these aspects of emergent literacy or between these skills during preschool and during later reading. This study examined the joint and unique predictive significance of emergent literacy skills for both later emergent literacy skills and reading in two samples of preschoolers. Ninety-six children (mean age = 41 months, SD = 9.41) were followed from early to late preschool, and 97 children (mean age = 60 months, SD = 5.41) were followed from late preschool to kindergarten or first grade. Structural equation modeling revealed significant developmental continuity of these skills, particularly for letter knowledge and phonological sensitivity from late preschool to early grade school, both of which were the only unique predictors of decoding.     

Intergenerational transmission of literacy skills among Filipino families

We examined the joint role of parental word reading skills and conventional home literacy environment measures among 320 Filipino low‐ to middle‐income families in Cebu City, Philippines with children aged 5–8 years old. A ranking of parent‐reported ratings of their frequency of engaging in home literacy activities and adult literacy practices revealed that book‐related behaviors were less frequently practiced relative to other behaviors, and mean ratings on the home literacy resources scale suggested a relatively print‐poor environment. Nevertheless, scale items about book reading and direct literacy instruction at home correlated with child's language and literacy skills. Structural equation modeling showed that parent's education and frequency of engaging in home literacy activities uniquely accounted for variance in child's oral language and print knowledge skills. In a second model, parent's word reading skills were significantly related to child's skills, but did not eliminate or attenuate influences from parent's education and home literacy activities. Results are important in relation to theories on the intergenerational transmission of literacy skills and the generalizability of findings from developed countries to developing country contexts.     

Class size effects on literacy skills and literacy interest in first grade: A large-scale investigation

This article examines the impact of class size on literacy skills and on literacy interest in beginning readers from zones with specific educational needs in France. The data came from an experiment involving first graders in which teachers and pupils were randomly assigned to the different class types (small classes of 10-12 pupils vs. regular classes of 20-25 pupils).Globally, the findings reveal that class size has a (small) impact on the two basic literacy skills, reading (word recognition task) and spelling (word production task). Children with high literacy interest made more progress than children with low literacy interest. The analysis also explores the effect of four factors - early schooling, age, first language and socio-economic status - on the same type of literacy skills as above. Smaller classes most specifically improved performances in two types of population: children whose first language is French and children from intermediate and average socio-economic brackets. This means, in contrast, that neither the children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds nor the children whose first language was not French benefited from the use of smaller first grade classes. Data in this experiment are examined in the light of studies on the connections between class size, classroom procedures and pupils' engagement.     

Implications of document-level literacy skills for Web site design

The proliferation of World Wide Web (Web) sites and the low cost of publishing information on the Web have placed a tremendous amount of information at the fingertips of millions of people. Although most of this information is at least intended to be accurate, there is much that is rumor, innuendo, urban legend, and outright falsehood. This raises problems especially for students (of all ages) trying to do research or learn about some topic. Finding accurate, credible information requires document-level literacy skills, such as integration, sourcing, corroboration, and search. This paper discusses these skills and offers a list of simple ways that designers of educational Web sites can help their visitors utilize these skills.     

Early literacy among Arabic-speaking kindergartners: The role of socioeconomic status,home literacy environment and maternal mediation of writing

We explored the sociocultural context of early literacy development among Arabic-speaking kindergartners in Israel, focusing on the nature of mother–child joint writing. Eighty-nine kindergartners and their mothers participated. Mothers were videotaped in their homes while helping their children write words. Early literacy was evaluated by alphabetic knowledge, concepts about print, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Kindergartners’ early literacy was related to socioeconomic status (SES), home literacy environment (HLE) and maternal mediation level. Hierarchical regressions indicate that HLE predicted alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness, and vocabulary beyond SES. Maternal mediation of writing predicted all children's early literacy measures except vocabulary, after controlling for SES and HLE. We discuss maternally mediated joint writing interactions as a possible context for early literacy enhancement among young Arabic-speaking children in Israel.