Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Early Literacy at Home: General Environmental Factors and Specific Parent Input

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Literacy Development and Enhancement Across Orthographies and Cultures

Part of the book series: Literacy Studies ((LITS,volume 2))

Abstract

This chapter outlines three aspects of early literacy in relation to general environment and parenting. First, we overview some general characteristics of the home environment that can influence how (and what) children learn to read and write. Next, we overview more specifically how parents can facilitate children’s early literacy growth. These studies focus particularly on dialogic reading and shared parent-child writing. Finally, we highlight the importance of both phonological awareness and morphological awareness for children’s early reading and writing development. Children’s early cognitive skills interact with their general environment, including the central role of parents and other caregivers, in affecting early literacy growth across cultures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aram, D. (2007). Sensitivity and consistency of maternal writing mediation to twin kindergartners. Early Education and Development, 18, 71–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aram, D., & Levin, I. (2001). Mother-child joint writing in low SES: sociocultural factors, maternal mediation, and emergent literacy. Cognitive Development, 16, 831–852.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aram, D., & Levin, I. (2004). The role of maternal mediation of writing to kindergartners in promoting literacy in school: a longitudinal perspective. Reading and Writing, 17, 387–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balmuth, M. (1992). The roots of phonics: a historical introduction. Baltimore, MD: York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumann, J. F., Edwards, E. C., Font, G., Tereshinski, C. A., Kame’enui, E. J., & Olejnik, S. (2002). Teaching morphemic and contextual analysis to fifth-grade students. Reading Research Quarterly, 37, 150–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bus, A. G., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1999). Phonological awareness and early reading: a meta-analysis of experimental training studies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 403–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, T.Y., & McBride-Chang, C. (2005). Environment and bilingualism in Hong Kong kindergartners: The impact of foreign domestic helpers on early language-learning. Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies 6, 179–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheung, H., & Ng, L. (2003). Chinese reading development in some major Chinese societies: an introduction. In C. McBride-Chang & H.-C. Chen (Eds.), Reading development in Chinese children (pp. 3–17). Westport, CT: Praeger Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiu, M. M., & McBride-Chang, C. (2006). Gender, Context, and Reading: a comparison of students in 41 countries. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10, 331–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cho, J.-R., McBride-Chang, C., & Park, S.-G. (2008). Phonological awareness and morphological awareness: Differential associations to regular and irregular word recognition in early Korean Hangul readers. Reading and Writing, 21, 255–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chow, B. W.-Y., & McBride-Chang, C. (2003). Promoting language and literacy development through parent-child reading in Hong Kong preschoolers. Early Education and Development, 14, 233–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chow, B. W.-Y., McBride-Chang, C., & Burgess, S. (2005). Phonological processing skills and early reading abilities in Hong Kong Chinese kindergarteners learning to read English as an L2. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 81–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chow, B. W.-Y., McBride-Chang, C., Cheung, H., & Choi, L. (2008). Dialogic reading and morphology training in Chinese children: effects on language and literacy. Developmental Psychology, 44, 233–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elbro, C., & Arnbak, E. (1996). The role of morpheme recognition and morphological awareness in dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 46, 209–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fung, P.-C., Chow, B. W.-Y., & McBride-Chang, C. (2005). The impact of a dialogic reading program on deaf and hard-of-hearing kindergarten and early primary school-aged students in Hong Kong. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 10, 82–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ho, C. S.-H., & Braynt, P. (1997). Phonological skills are important in learning to read Chinese. Developmental Psychology, 33, 946–951.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korat, O., & Levin, I. (2001). Maternal beliefs and child development: comparison of text writing between two social groups. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 22, 397–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lau, J. Y.-H., & McBride-Chang, C. (2005). Home literacy and Chinese reading in Hong Kong children. Early Education and Development, 16, 5–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leseman, P. P. M., & de Jong, P. F. (1998). Home literacy: opportunity, instruction, cooperation and social-emotional quality predicting early reading achievement. Reading Research Quarterly, 33, 294–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, I., & Bus, A. (2003). How is emergent writing based on drawing? Analyses of children’s products and their sorting by children and mothers. Developmental Psychology, 29, 891–905.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, I., Ravid, D., & Rapaport, S. (2001). Morphological and spelling among Hebrew-speaking children: from kindergarten to first grade. Journal of Child Language, 28, 741–772.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, I., Shatil-Carmon, S., & Asif-Rave, O. (2005). Learning of letter names and sounds and their contribution to word recognition. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 93, 139–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, D., McBride-Chang, C., Aram, D., Levin, I., Cheung, R.Y.-M., Chow, Y.Y.-Y., & Tolchinsky, L. (in press). Maternal mediation of writing in Chinese children. Language and Cognitive Processes, 24, 1286–1311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundberg, I., Frost, J., & Petersen, O. P. (1988). Effects of an extensive program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool children. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 263–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyster, S. A. H. (2002). The effects of morphological versus phonological awareness training in kindergarten on reading development. Reading and Writing, 15, 261–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C. (2004). Children’s literacy development (texts in developmental psychology series). London: Edward Arnold/Oxford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C., Cho, J.-R., Liu, H., Wagner, R. K., Shu, H., Zhou, A., et al. (2005). Changing models across cultures: Associations of phonological and morphological awareness to reading in Beijing, Hong Kong, Korea, and America. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 92(2), 140–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C., Shu, H., Zhou, A., Wat, C. P., & Wagner, R. K. (2003). Morphological awareness uniquely predicts young children’s Chinese Character Recognition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 743–751.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Packard, J. L., Chen, X., Li, W., Wu, X., Gaffney, J. S., Li, H., et al. (2006). Explicit instruction in orthographic structure and word morphology helps Chinese children learn to write characters. Reading and Writing, 19, 457–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rauh, V. A., Lamb-Parker, F., Garfinkel, R. S., Perry, J., & Andrews, H. F. (2003). Biological, social, and community influences on the third-grade reading levels of minority head start children: a multi-level approach. Journal of Community Psychology, 31(3), 255–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rispens, J., McBride-Chang, C., & Reitsma, P. (2008). Morphological awareness and early and advanced reading and spelling in Dutch: a cross-sectional study. Reading and Writing, 21, 587–607.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sénéchal, M., & LeFevre, J. (2002). Parental involvement in the developmental of children’s reading skill: a five-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 73(2), 445–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shu, H., McBride-Chang, C., Wu, S., & Liu, H. (2006). Understanding Chinese developmental dyslexia: morphological awareness as a core cognitive construct. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 122–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siok, W. T., & Fletcher, P. (2001). The role of phonological awareness and visual-orthographic skills in Chinese reading acquisition. Developmental Psychology, 37, 886–899.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sonnenschein, S., Baker, L., Serpell, R., Scher, D., Truitt, V. G., & Munsterman, K. (1997). Parental beliefs about ways to help children learn to read: the impact of an entertainment or a skills perspective. Early Child Development and Care, 127–128, 111–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tracey, D. H., & Young, J. W. (2002). Mothers’ helping behaviors during children’s at-home oral-reading practice: effects of children’s reading ability, children’s gender, and mothers’ educational level. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 729–737.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNICEF. (2001). The state of the world’s children 2001. Retrieved March 11, 2006, from http://www.unicef.org/sowc01

  • Valenzuela, M. (1997). Maternal sensitivity in a developing society: the context of urban poverty and infant chronic undernutrition. Developmental Psychology, 33, 845–855.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vernon-Feagans, L., Hammer, C. S., Miccio, A., & Manolove, E. (2001). Early language and literacy skills in low-income African American and Hispanic children. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (pp. 192–210). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehurst, G. J., Epstein, J. N., Angell, A. L., Payne, A. C., Crone, D. A., & Fischel, J. E. (1994). Outcomes of an emergent literacy intervention in Head Start. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 542–555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitehurst, G. J., Falco, F. L., Lonigan, C., Fischel, J. E., DeBaryshe, B. D., Valdez-Menchaca, M. C., et al. (1988). Accelerating language development through picture-book reading. Developmental Psychology, 24, 552–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). The development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69, 848–872.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehurst, G. J., Zevenbergen, A. A., Crone, D. A., Schultz, M. D., Velting, O. N., & Fischel, J. E. (1999). Outcomes of an emergent literacy intervention from Head Start through second grade. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 261–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, R. K., Muse, A. E., & Tannenbaum, K. R. (2007). Vocabulary acquisition: implications for reading comprehension. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weigel, D. J., Martin, S. S., & Bennett, K. K. (2006). Contributions of the home literacy environment to preschool-aged children’s emerging literacy and language skills. Early Child Development & Care, 176(3/4), 357–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, X., Li, W., & Anderson, R. C. (1999). Reading instruction in China. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31, 571–586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong

    Catherine McBride-Chang, Yvonne Y. Y. Chow & Xiuli Tong

Authors
  1. Catherine McBride-Chang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yvonne Y. Y. Chow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xiuli Tong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Catherine McBride-Chang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Constantiner School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Dorit Aram

  2. School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 52100, Israel

    Ofra Korat

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

McBride-Chang, C., Chow, Y.Y.Y., Tong, X. (2010). Early Literacy at Home: General Environmental Factors and Specific Parent Input. In: Aram, D., Korat, O. (eds) Literacy Development and Enhancement Across Orthographies and Cultures. Literacy Studies, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0834-6_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation