scholarly journals How Does Toddlers’ Engagement in Literacy Activities Influence Their Language Abilities?

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 526
Author(s):  
Raffaele Dicataldo ◽  
Maja Roch
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
Home Literacy Environment ◽  
Literacy Environment ◽  
Literacy Experiences ◽  
Literacy Activities ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Children's Interests

The most intensive period of language development is during the first years of life, during which the brain is developing rapidly. Research has shown that children from disadvantaged households who received high-quality stimulation at a young age grew into adults who earned an average of 25% more than those who did not receive these interventions. In addition, it has been suggested that children who show a greater interest in literacy-related activities and voluntarily engage in them are likely to become better readers than children with less interest in literacy. These children’s factors, along with their engagement in literacy activities, are important components in children’s early literacy experiences and may affect their early language development. In this study, we examined associations among maternal education, home literacy environment (HLE), children’s interest and engagement in literacy activities, and language development of 44 toddlers aged between 20 and 36 months. Overall, results showed that only children’s engagement in literacy activities was related to vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills, whereas maternal education, HLE, and children’s interests were not. These results suggest that taking advantage of individual children’s interests by planning activities in which children are fully engaged, may be effective strategies for promoting children’s oral language development.

Language development, metalinguistic awareness, and emergent literacy skills of 3-year-old children in relation to social class

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Chaney
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Socioeconomic Factors ◽  
Family Literacy ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Literacy Experiences ◽  
Literacy Activities ◽  
Concepts About Print ◽  
Metalinguistic Skills

ABSTRACTThis is an investigation of the relationships among selected aspects of normal language development, emerging metalinguistic skills, concepts about print, and family literacy experiences in 3-year-old children who vary in their socioeconomic backgrounds. Forty-three normally developing children, whose family incomes ranged from under $10,000 to over $100,000, were given 4 tests of language development; 12 metalinguistic tasks measuring phonological awareness, word awareness, and structural awareness; and 2 measures of literacy knowledge. The children's family literacy experiences were described following a parent interview. The data analysis had two main purposes. The first was to examine the family literacy experiences of the children using a qualitative analysis. The second was to describe, in a quantitative way, the relationships among family literacy experiences, socioeconomic factors, language development, metalinguistic performance, and concepts about print. The interview data revealed that, while parents varied in the emphasis they placed on literacy activities, all of the children were at least somewhat involved in literacy activities at home; family report of literacy activities was associated with family income. Quantitative analyses revealed that amount of family literacy involvement and the children's race were related to oral language development, and language development was the most powerful predictor of metalinguistic awareness. When language development was controlled statistically, family literacy and socioeconomic factors had negligible effects on metalinguistic skills; however, knowledge of print concepts was related to metalinguistic performance, especially in the phonological domain, and was associated with the children's family literacy experiences, maternal education, and race.

scholarly journals The Sooner, the Better

SAGE Open ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401667271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Niklas ◽  
Caroline Cohrssen ◽  
Collette Tayler
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Primary Caregivers ◽  
Home Literacy Environment ◽  
Home Literacy ◽  
Family Characteristics ◽  
School Entry ◽  
Literacy Environment ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
Before School ◽  
Reading To Children

As reading to children plays an important role in language development, primary caregivers are often encouraged to read to their children from a very young age. However, little is known about the age at which such reading should start. The linguistic skills of 104 children were assessed shortly before school entry. Their parents were asked how old their children were when they first read to them and how often they had read to their children. Almost half of the study children were read to before they were 6 months old. The age at which children were first read to was closely associated with family characteristics such as socioeconomic status, the frequency with which children were read to as preschoolers, and with children’s linguistic and cognitive competencies. The findings imply that reading books to very young children indeed contributes meaningfully to a favorable home literacy environment and supports children’s language development.

scholarly journals Characteristics of the preschool home literacy environment which predict writing skills at school

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Adams ◽  
Elena Soto-Calvo ◽  
Hannah N. Francis ◽  
Hannah Patel ◽  
Courtney Hartley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Writing Skills ◽  
Home Literacy Environment ◽  
Home Literacy ◽  
Home Learning Environment ◽  
Literacy Environment ◽  
Literacy Experiences ◽  
Exploratory Factor Analyses ◽  
Word Spelling ◽  
Letter Sound ◽  
Transcription Skills

AbstractAspects 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 experiences, alongside an index of book exposure. One hundred and twenty one children (60 female, Mage = 6:7, SD = 3.67 months) contributed data assessing their transcription skills, indexed by handwriting fluency and word spelling, and translation abilities, indexed by sentence generation and the ability to produce more extended text. Exploratory factor analyses confirmed distinct factors relating to the productivity and complexity of writing samples. Regression analyses revealed that the frequency of preschool code-related, letter-sound interactions explained significant variance in children’s transcription skills at school, independently of earlier language and nonverbal abilities. In contrast, experiences in the preschool HLE were not related to the higher level writing skills of translation and text production. The implications of the findings for our understanding of the cognitive and environmental factors associated with children’s early writing development are discussed.

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