Variations in the Home Literacy Environment of Preschool Children: A Cluster Analytic Approach

A Model of the Home Literacy Environment and Family Risk of Reading Difficulty in Relation to Children's Preschool Emergent Literacy

This study extends the research on the preschool home literacy environment (HLE) in the context of the family risk (FR) of reading disability (RD) by examining a multiple-deficit model of RD. A total of 1,171 six-year-old Norwegian children were assessed at school entry, the onset of formal reading instruction in Norway. Their parents completed a questionnaire regarding their own RD, education, and the HLE. The final sample after applying the inclusion criteria was 794 children and their parents. The findings suggest, first, that two HLE factors (access to print and reading-related activities) should be distinguished rather than treated as a single factor ("exposure to print") as the majority of previous studies have done. This finding suggests a three-factor HLE model that includes parents' reading interests and habits, reading-related activities, and access to print. Second, family risk of RD is related to some extent to the HLE, even after controlling for parents' education. Third, children's experiences in their home environments and their emergent literacy may not be independent of their family risk of RD. More importantly, this study highlights the potential protective role of the HLE, especially when there is a history of RD within the family. The reason is that the positive association between the HLE and children's code-related emergent literacy remains significant when controlling for family risk of RD (access to print → emergent literacy: 0.39 [0.01, 0.68], p < 0.01; reading-related activities → emergent literacy: 0.37 [0.02, 0.35], p < 0.01; parents' reading interests and habits → emergent literacy: 0.26 [0.001, 0.15], p < 0.01). This finding supports that children's emergent literacy can be improved via a modifiable, dynamic factor such as the HLE.

Beliefs and Motivations Regarding Early Shared Reading of Parents From Low-Income Households: A Qualitative Study

OBJECTIVE

Parent-child "shared" reading is a catalyst for development of language and other emergent literacy skills. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents initiate shared reading as soon as possible after birth. Persistent disparities exist in reading resources, routines, and subsequent literacy outcomes, disproportionately impacting low-income households. We sought to understand beliefs, motivations, and experiences regarding shared reading during early infancy among parents from low-income households.

METHODS

In this qualitative exploratory study, parents of infants aged 0 to 9 months from low-income households who had initiated shared reading ("readers") and those who had not ("nonreaders") were purposefully recruited to participate in individual semistructured virtual interviews. These interviews were coded using inductive thematic analysis by a 3-member team with diverse backgrounds.

RESULTS

A total of 21 parents participated (57% readers, 86% mothers). Infants were 86% African American/Black, with a mean age of 3 months. Barriers noted by readers and nonreaders were i) competing demands on time, ii) lack of resources, and iii) parental mental health. An additional barrier noted solely by nonreaders was iv) it's too early/baby is not ready. Two benefits of reading were noted by both groups: 1) parents as child's first teachers and 2) reading catalyzes the child's development. Benefits noted exclusively by readers included 3) reading begets more reading, 4) bonding, 5) "it works," and 6) "two-for-one" shared reading (other children involved).

CONCLUSIONS

This study provided insights into barriers and benefits regarding shared reading by socioeconomically disadvantaged parents of infants and has the potential to inform reading-related guidance and interventions.

How do socioeconomic attainment gaps in early mathematical ability arise?

Socioeconomic attainment gaps in mathematical ability are evident before children begin school, and widen over time. Little is known about why early attainment gaps emerge. Two cross-sectional correlational studies were conducted in 2018-2019 with socioeconomically diverse preschoolers, to explore four factors that might explain why attainment gaps arise: working memory, inhibitory control, verbal ability, and frequency of home mathematical activities (N = 304, 54% female; 84% White, 10% Asian, 1% black African, 1% Kurdish, 4% mixed ethnicity). Inhibitory control and verbal ability emerged as indirect factors in the relation between socioeconomic status and mathematical ability, but neither working memory nor home activities did. We discuss the implications this has for future research to understand, and work towards narrowing attainment gaps.

Socioeconomic dissociations in the neural and cognitive bases of reading disorders

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) strongly predicts disparities in reading development, yet it is unknown whether early environments also moderate the cognitive and neurobiological bases of reading disorders (RD) such as dyslexia, the most prevalent learning disability. SES-diverse 6-9-year-old children (n = 155, half with RD) completed behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tasks engaging phonological and orthographic processing, which revealed corresponding double-dissociations in neurocognitive deficits. At the higher end of the SES spectrum, RD was most strongly explained by differences in phonological skill and corresponding activation in left inferior frontal and temporoparietal regions during phonological processing-widely considered the "core deficit" of RD. However, at the lower end of the SES spectrum, RD was most strongly explained by differences in rapid naming skills and corresponding activation in left temporoparietal and fusiform regions during orthographic processing. Findings indicate that children's early environments systematically moderate the neurocognitive systems underlying RD, which has implications for assessment and treatment approaches to reduce SES disparities in RD outcomes. Further, results suggest that reliance on high-SES convenience samples may mask critical heterogeneity in the foundations of both typical and disordered reading development.

Assessing Shared Reading in Families at Risk: Does Quantity Predict Quality?

PURPOSE

Quantity and quality of early at-home reading shape literacy outcomes. At-home reading frequency is a common outcome measure in interventions. This single measure may not fully capture the quality of early reading interactions, such as parent and child references to print, an important contributor to language and literacy outcomes. This study aims to evaluate if and how reported reading frequency and duration are associated with parent and child print referencing, controlling for perceived parenting self-efficacy, developmental knowledge, and child sex.

METHOD

This study is a secondary analysis of baseline data from a treatment study with parents (N = 30) and children (1;1-2;3 [years;months]) from underresourced households. Parents reported weekly reading episode frequency and duration (in minutes). We coded parent-child book-sharing interactions to quantify use of print references.

RESULTS

Negative binomial regression modeling suggested that parents who reported more weekly reading episodes tended to use more print references during interactions. However, reported reading time in minutes was not significantly associated with parents' print referencing. Parents' print references were also associated with perceived self-efficacy, developmental knowledge, and child sex. In our sample, parents used more print references with male children. Neither reading frequency nor reading time was associated with increased print referencing from children.

CONCLUSIONS

Duration of reading did not positively predict children's use of print references. However, weekly reading frequency positively predicted parents' use of print references. Parent perceived self-efficacy and knowledge may predict early interaction quality similarly to quantity of reading.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20669094.

Socioeconomic status and reading outcomes: Neurobiological and behavioral correlates

In this chapter, we examine reading outcomes and socioeconomic status (SES) using a developmental cognitive and educational neuroscience perspective. Our focus is on reading achievement and intervention outcomes for students from lower SES backgrounds who struggle with reading. Socioeconomic disadvantage is a specific type of vulnerability students experience, which is often narrowly defined based on parental income, education level, and/or occupational prestige. However, implications of socioeconomic status extend broadly to a suite of areas relevant for reading outcomes including a student's access to resources, experiences, language exposure, academic outcomes, and psychological correlates. Underlying this constellation of factors are brain systems supporting the processing of oral and written language as well as stress-related factors. We review the implications of SES and reading achievement, and their intersectionality, for the science and practice of reading instruction.

Dialogue with a conversational agent promotes children's story comprehension via enhancing engagement

Dialogic reading, when children are read a storybook and engaged in relevant conversation, is a powerful strategy for fostering language development. With the development of artificial intelligence, conversational agents can engage children in elements of dialogic reading. This study examined whether a conversational agent can improve children's story comprehension and engagement, as compared to an adult reading partner. Using a 2 (dialogic reading or non‐dialogic reading) × 2 (agent or human) factorial design, a total of 117 three‐ to six‐year‐olds (50% Female, 37% White, 31% Asian, 21% multi‐ethnic) were randomly assigned into one of the four conditions. Results revealed that a conversational agent can replicate the benefits of dialogic reading with a human partner by enhancing children's narrative‐relevant vocalizations, reducing irrelevant vocalizations, and improving story comprehension.

Language Ideologies, Practices, and Kindergarteners’ Narrative Macrostructure Development: Crucial Factors for Sustainable Development of Early Language Education

This paper explored crucial factors to achieve sustainable development of early language education by examining the relationship between two dimensions of family language policy—language ideologies and language practices—as well as the relationship between family language policy and the development of children’s narrative macrostructure. Data were collected via a language performance test and a questionnaire survey of 131 kindergartners from 10 kindergartens in a Chinese city. Structural equation modeling corroborated the relationship between family language ideologies and family language practices proposed by family language policy theorists. Results showed that family language policy significantly predicted kindergarteners’ development of narrative macrostructure. In addition, age was shown to be a significant predictor of narrative macrostructure development, whereas gender was not. Implications for early intervention of children’s narrative macrostructure development were discussed.

The Relation Between Academic Word Use and Reading Comprehension for Students From Diverse Backgrounds

Purpose

The aims of the current project were twofold: (a) to describe the use of academic words in written language samples by fifth-grade students and (b) to examine the predictive relation between academic word use in academic writing and reading comprehension.

Method

Investigators utilized written expository responses of 1,128 students in fifth grade who differed in English proficiency and language ability. The sample included 214 students who were English learners (ELs) and 144 students with identified language learning disabilities (LLD). Group differences in the use of academic words from the Coxhead word list were examined.

Results

ELs and students with LLD used academic words less frequently than their peers and demonstrated less variety in their academic word use. There was a significant relation between students' use of academic words and reading comprehension. Academic word use accounted for 16% of the variance in reading comprehension, which was not significantly different for ELs or students with LLD. The relation was moderated by economic advantage, with the strength of the relation being lower for students who were eligible for free/reduced lunch.

Conclusions

Findings support the need for additional research on ways to improve academic vocabulary skills to minimize achievement gaps. The relation between academic word use and reading comprehension warrants further consideration.

The effects of book exposure and reading interest on oral language skills of children with and without a familial risk of dyslexia

The potential role of home literacy environment (HLE) in children's language development has been widely studied. However, data on the HLE of children with familial risk (FR) of dyslexia are limited. In this longitudinal study, we examined (a) whether amount of book exposure and reading interest at age 4 were different in samples of Norwegian FR and no FR-children, respectively, (b) whether these home literacy-related factors exerted different effects depending on family-risk status on vocabulary and grammar skills at school entry age (6 years) and (c) whether they contributed independently to language outcomes at age 6, after controlling for the 4;6-year language skills. Results showed no significant between-group differences in book exposure and reading interest. Furthermore, while interest in reading did not affect vocabulary and grammar in either group, book exposure contributed to vocabulary skills only in the FR-group by school entry. However, this longitudinal association was mediated by lexical skills at age 4;6, implying that the HLE has a positive indirect effect on later language development through its effect on early language. Thus, these findings can be taken to suggest that early intervention including exposure to various book-reading activities for pre-school FR-children with poor expressive vocabulary is worth considering.

Skill-experience transactions across development: Bidirectional relations between child core language and the child's home learning environment

The transaction of children's core language skill and their home learning environment was assessed across 5 waves from infancy (15 months) up to adolescence (11 years) in 1,751 low-socioeconomic status families. Child core language skill and the quality of the home learning environment were each stable across waves, and the two covaried at each wave. Over and above these stabilities and concurrent correlations, and net child social competence and maternal education, higher quality stimulation and support in the home learning environment at each wave advanced children's core language skill at each subsequent wave, and reciprocally children with more advanced core language skill at each wave stimulated a higher quality home learning environment at each subsequent wave. These transactions were robust across child gender, ethnicity, birth order, and developmental risk. This bidirectionality shows that children consistently affect their environments from infancy to adolescence and underscores that the home learning environment is a worthy intervention target for improving core language skill in children regardless of age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Home Language and Literacy Environments and Early Literacy Trajectories of Low-Socioeconomic Status Chilean Children

This study used Latent Class Analysis to identify groups of children exposed to similar Home Language and Literacy Environments (HLLE) and explored whether belonging to a given HLLE group was related to children's language and early literacy growth from prekindergarten to kindergarten. Participants were 1,425 Chilean mothers and their children (M_age  = 52.52 months at baseline) from low-socioeconomic status households. Four HLLE groups were identified, which were associated with different trajectories of language and early literacy development. Children from groups whose mothers either read and talk about past events with them or teach them letters in addition to reading and talking about past events, showed higher relative vocabulary and letter knowledge. Implications for research and interventions are discussed.

Child, family, and school factors in bilingual preschoolers' vocabulary development in heritage languages

Child characteristics, family factors, and preschool factors are all found to affect the rate of bilingual children's vocabulary development in heritage language (HL). However, what remains unknown is the relative importance of these three sets of factors in HL vocabulary growth. The current study explored the complex issue with 457 Singaporean preschool children who are speaking either Mandarin, Malay, or Tamil as their HL. A series of internal factors (e.g., non-verbal intelligence) and external factors (e.g., maternal educational level) were used to predict children's HL vocabulary growth over a year at preschool with linear mixed effects models.The results demonstrated that external factors (i.e., family and preschool factors) are relatively more important than child characteristics in enhancing bilingual children's HL vocabulary growth. Specifically, children's language input quantity (i.e., home language dominance), input quality (e.g., number of books in HL), and HL input quantity at school (i.e., the time between two waves of tests at preschool) predict the participants' HL vocabulary growth, with initial vocabulary controlled. The relative importance of external factors in bilingual children's HL vocabulary development is attributed to the general bilingual setting in Singapore, where HL is taken as a subject to learn at preschool and children have fairly limited exposure to HL in general. The limited amount of input might not suffice to trigger the full expression of internal resources. Our findings suggest the crucial roles that caregivers and preschools play in early HL education, and the necessity of more parental involvement in early HL learning in particular.

Improving parenting practices and development for young children in Rwanda: Results from a randomized control trial

It is well known that the first 1,000 days of life have long-lasting impact on a child’s cognitive, language, socio-emotional, and physical development, but there is little evidence from Rwanda about how to maximize parent–child interactions during these critical early years. Save the Children piloted the First Steps “Intera za Mbere” early childhood parenting education program in one district of Rwanda to promote healthy development through holistic parenting education. Using a cluster randomized control trial, we assessed outcomes of a 17-week parenting education on parenting skills and child development for families with children aged 6–36 months. Families were randomly allocated into three study groups: light touch ( n = 482), full intervention ( n = 482), and control ( n = 483) groups. We used a Kinyarwanda-adaptation of the validated Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ), a Home Observation Measurement of the Environment-Short Form. Multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses were used for both the intention-to-treat analyses and more robust models controlling for ASQ form received, child gender, maternal education, number of children in the home, and baseline ASQ scores. Findings indicate that children in the light touch and full intervention groups were significantly more likely to meet the ASQ benchmarks than the control group in all developmental domains. The strong positive results from the light touch group are especially relevant to efforts to bring beneficial early childhood stimulation programs to scale in low-income contexts.

Acquisition of Reading and Intellectual Development Disorder

We propose a review of the literature of the studies investigating reading acquisition in intellectual deficiency (ID), with particular focus on the explanatory factors for reading difficulties. Indeed, we explore the role of intellectual efficiency, perceptual abilities, oral language development, phonological processing and memory. The study of reading acquisition in ID is a challenge because of a high degree of heterogeneity in the results which, together with other variables influencing learning and development. This review has allowed us to understand that there are multiple reasons why individuals with ID have difficulty learning to read. More specifically, there is a link between reading skills and certain cognitive skills, such as perception, oral language, phonological processing and working memory.

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.

Real-World Usage of Educational Media Does Not Promote Parent-Child Cognitive Stimulation Activities

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether educational media as actually used by low-income families promote parent-child cognitive stimulation activities.

METHODS

We performed secondary analysis of the control group of a longitudinal cohort of mother-infant dyads enrolled postpartum in an urban public hospital. Educational media exposure (via a 24-hour recall diary) and parent-child activities that may promote cognitive stimulation in the home (using StimQ) were assessed at 6, 14, 24, and 36 months.

RESULTS

Data from 149 mother-child dyads, 93.3% Latino, were analyzed. Mean (standard deviation) educational media exposure at 6, 14, 24, and 36 months was, respectively, 25 (40), 42 (58), 39 (49), and 39 (50) minutes per day. In multilevel model analyses, prior educational media exposure had small positive relationship with subsequent total StimQ scores (β = 0.11, P = .03) but was nonsignificant (β = 0.08, P = .09) after adjusting for confounders (child: age, gender, birth order, noneducational media exposure, language; mother: age, ethnicity, marital status, country of origin, language, depressive symptoms). Educational media did predict small increases in verbal interactions and toy provision (adjusted models, respectively: β = 0.13, P = .02; β = 0.11; P = .03). In contrast, more consistent relationships were seen for models of the relationship between prior StimQ (total, verbal interactions and teaching; adjusted models, respectively: β = 0.20, P = .002; β = 0.15, P = .006; β = 0.20, P = .001) and predicted subsequent educational media.

CONCLUSIONS

Educational media as used by this sample of low-income families does not promote cognitive stimulation activities important for early child development or activities such as reading and teaching.

Teoria da mente e leitura: estudo qualitativo na educação infantil

Resumo Tendo em vista as interfaces entre teoria da mente e linguagem e os benefícios da leitura mediada para o desenvolvimento sociocognitivo infantil, apresenta-se a vertente qualitativa de um estudo mais amplo sobre teoria da mente, que, de forma complementar, investigou as experiências vivenciadas por pré-escolares em relação à atividade leitora no contexto familiar e escolar. Participaram da pesquisa 178 crianças e 17 docentes de escolas públicas e privadas de educação infantil. As crianças responderam a um questionário que buscou avaliar o contexto familiar das atividades diárias de leitura; já as professoras foram entrevistadas para avaliar as concepções e práticas sobre as atividades leitoras em sala de aula, sendo os relatos submetidos à análise de conteúdo. Os resultados indicam que os contextos de leitura tanto familiar quanto escolar são potencialmente favoráveis ao desenvolvimento sociocognitivo e tendem a contribuir para o aprimoramento da compreensão infantil dos estados mentais.

Home literacy environment profiles of children with language impairment: associations with caregiver- and child-specific factors

BACKGROUND

Numerous studies suggest a positive relationship between the home literacy environment (HLE) and children's language and literacy skills, yet very little research has focused on the HLE of children with language impairment (LI). Children with LI are at risk for reading difficulties; thus, understanding the nature and frequency of their home literacy interactions is warranted.

AIMS

To identify unique HLE profiles within a large sample of children with LI, and to determine relevant caregiver- and child-specific factors that predict children's profile membership.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Participants were 195 kindergarten and first-grade children with LI who were receiving school-based language therapy. Caregivers completed a comprehensive questionnaire regarding their child's HLE, and the extent to which their child engaged in shared book reading, were taught about letters, initiated or asked to be read to, and chose to read independently. Caregivers also answered questions regarding the highest level of maternal education, caregiver history of reading difficulties, and caregiver reading habits. Children completed a language and literacy battery in the fall of their academic year.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Latent profile analyses indicated a three-profile solution, representing high, average and low frequency of the selected HLE indicators. Multinomial regression further revealed that caregivers' own reading habits influenced children's profile membership, as did child age and language abilities.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

These results highlight the considerable variability in the frequency of home literacy interactions of children with LI. Future work examining relations between familial reading practices and literacy outcomes for children with LI is warranted.

The Home Literacy Environment Is a Correlate, but Perhaps Not a Cause, of Variations in Children's Language and Literacy Development

The home literacy environment is a well-established predictor of children's language and literacy development. We investigated whether formal, informal, and indirect measures of the home literacy environment predict children's reading and language skills once maternal language abilities are taken into account. Data come from a longitudinal study of children at high risk of dyslexia (N = 251) followed from preschool years. Latent factors describing maternal language were significant predictors of storybook exposure but not of direct literacy instruction. Maternal language and phonological skills respectively predicted children's language and reading/spelling skills. However, after accounting for variations in maternal language, storybook exposure was not a significant predictor of children's outcomes. In contrast, direct literacy instruction remained a predictor of children's reading/spelling skills. We argue that the relationship between early informal home literacy activities and children's language and reading skills is largely accounted for by maternal skills and may reflect genetic influences.

Parents' Talk About Letters With Their Young Children

A literacy-related activity that occurs in children's homes-talk about letters in everyday conversations-was examined using data from 50 children who were visited every 4 months between 14 and 50 months. Parents talked about some letters, including those that are common in English words and the first letter of their children's names, especially often. Parents' focus on the child's initial was especially strong in families of higher socioeconomic status, and the extent to which parents talked about the child's initial during the later sessions of the study was related to the children's kindergarten reading skill. Conversations that included the child's initial were longer than those that did not, and parents presented a variety of information about this letter.

Learning with sublexical information from emerging reading vocabularies in exceptionally early and normal reading development

Predictions from theories of the processes of word reading acquisition have rarely been tested against evidence from exceptionally early readers. The theories of Ehri, Share, and Byrne, and an alternative, Knowledge Sources theory, were so tested. The former three theories postulate that full development of context-free letter sounds and awareness of phonemes are required for normal acquisition, while the claim of the alternative is that with or without such, children can use sublexical information from their emerging reading vocabularies to acquire word reading. Results from two independent samples of children aged 3-5, and 5 years, with mean word reading levels of 7 and 9 years respectively, showed underdevelopment of their context-free letter sounds and phoneme awareness, relative to their word reading levels and normal comparison samples. Despite such underdevelopment, these exceptional readers engaged in a form of phonological recoding that enabled pseudoword reading, at the level of older-age normal controls matched on word reading level. Moreover, in the 5-year-old sample further experiments showed that, relative to normal controls, they had a bias toward use of sublexical information from their reading vocabularies for phonological recoding of heterophonic pseudowords with irregular consistent spelling, and were superior in accessing word meanings independently of phonology, although only if the readers were without exposure to explicit phonics. The three theories were less satisfactory than the alternative theory in accounting for the learning of the exceptionally early readers.

Academic achievement in children with oral clefts versus unaffected siblings

OBJECTIVE

To compare academic achievement in children with oral-facial clefts (OFC) with their unaffected siblings.

METHODS

256 children with OFC were identified from the Iowa Registry for Congenital and Inherited Disorders, and 387 unaffected siblings were identified from birth certificates. These data were linked to Iowa Testing Programs achievement data. We compared academic achievement in children with OFC with their unaffected siblings using linear regression models, adjusted for potential confounders. In post hoc analyses, we explored modifiers of siblings' academic performance.

RESULTS

Achievement scores were similar between children with OFC and their siblings. Children with cleft palate only were significantly more likely to use special education than their unaffected siblings. Siblings' academic achievement was inversely related to distance in birth order and age from the affected child.

CONCLUSION

Children with OFC and their siblings received similar achievement scores. Younger siblings, in particular, may share a vulnerability to poor academic outcomes.

Letter Knowledge in Parent-Child Conversations

Learning about letters is an important component of emergent literacy. We explored the possibility that parent speech provides information about letters, and also that children's speech reflects their own letter knowledge. By studying conversations transcribed in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000) between parents and children aged one to five, we found that alphabetic order influenced use of individual letters and letter sequences. The frequency of letters in children's books influenced parent utterances throughout the age range studied, but children's utterances only after age two. Conversations emphasized some literacy-relevant features of letters, such as their shapes and association with words, but not letters' sounds. Describing these patterns and how they change over the preschool years offers important insight into the home literacy environment.

Parent-Child Conversations About Letters and Pictures

Learning about letters, and how they differ from pictures, is one important aspect of a young child's print awareness. To test the hypothesis that parent speech provides children with information about these differences, we studied parent-child conversations in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000). We found that parents talk to their young children about letters, differentiating them from pictures, by 1-2 years of age and that some of these conversational patterns change across the preschool years in ways that emphasize important features of letters, such as their shape. We also found that children talk about letters and pictures in distinct ways, suggesting an implicit understanding of some of the differences between letters and pictures at an early age. Some differences in parent-child conversations about letters were found as a function of socioeconomic status: Lower SES families appeared to focus more on alphabetic order than higher SES families. The general letter knowledge expressed in these conversations suggests that everyday interactions are an important component of the home literacy environment and that they differ, in some respects, as a function of child age and family background.

Early difficulties of Chinese preschoolers at familial risk for dyslexia: deficits in oral language, phonological processing skills, and print-related skills

The present study examined some early performance difficulties of Chinese preschoolers at familial risk for dyslexia. Seventy-six high-risk (40 good and 36 poor readers) and 25 low-risk Chinese children were tested on oral language, reading-related cognitive skills (e.g. phonological processing skills, rapid naming, and morphological awareness), and Chinese word reading and spelling over a 3-year period. The parents were also given a behaviour checklist for identifying child at-risk behaviours. Results showed that the High Risk (Poor Reading) group performed significantly worse than the Low Risk and the High Risk (Good Reading) group on most of the measures and domains. More children in the High Risk (Poor Reading) group displayed at-risk behaviours than in the other two groups. These results suggest that Chinese at-risk children with early difficulties in reading and spelling do show a wide range of language-, phonology-, and print-related deficits, similar to their alphabetic counterparts. An understanding of these early difficulties may help prevent dyslexia from developing in at-risk children.