Studies have examined the impact of parents’ educational level on their child’s emergent literacy skills and have found positive associations (Korat, 2009). However, a review of the literature indicates that previous studies have not investigated whether parents’ oral and written language skills relate to their child’s emergent oral and written language skills. This is important in light of the fact that parents’ educational level does not provide a complete picture of their academic skills (Greenberg, 1995). In addition to parental characteristics, the home literacy environment (HLE) is seen as important in the growth of children’s emergent literacy skills (Hood, Conlon, & Andrews, 2008). The two studies in this investigation explored the relationships among parental oral and written language skills, the HLE, and preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills. Both studies included 96 parent-child dyads. The first study examined the relationship between parents’ oral and written language skills and their preschoolers’ oral and written language skills. All participants were assessed on various oral and written language measures. Descriptive analyses, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), correlations, and regressions were conducted to assess the relationships between the parent skills and child skills. Most of the parental skills were found to have a relationship with the child skills. The second study extended the first study by examining the relationships between parental responses on a Home Literacy Environment Survey (HLES) and Title Recognition Test (TRT) of children’s books, parental characteristics (educational level and oral and written language skills), and children’s emergent literacy skills. Descriptive analyses, one-way ANOVA, correlations, and regressions were employed to gain information about the relationships among the variables. The HLE (measured by responses to the HLES and TRT) had positive relationships with parents’ skills and children’s skills. However, the HLE did not predict the children’s skills beyond the contribution of parental characteristics. Interpreting the results of this study promotes thought about the specific role of the HLE as a potential mediator between parental characteristics and child skills. Altogether, both studies provide preliminary information about parental factors that may influence preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills.

What is the developmental trajectory of the skills that underlie emergent literacy during the preschool years? Are there individual characteristics which predict whether a child will be at-risk for difficulties in acquiring literacy skills? Does a child’s experience in a high-quality early care and education environment enhance the development of his or her emergent literacy? The present study is an investigation of the individual and environmental factors relevant to children’s emergent literacy skills as they unfold in time. Using a combination of principal components analysis, growth modeling with a multi-level approach, and propensity score analysis, the trajectories of growth in emergent literacy were examined. In addition to child characteristics, the effects of early child environments on emergent literacy were also examined. The effects of home literacy environment and of high-quality early care and education environments were investigated using propensity score matching techniques. The growth in emergent literacy was examined using a nationally representative dataset, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth cohort (ECLS-B). Child characteristics, such as primary home language and poverty, were associated with lower initial abilities and suppressed growth in emergent literacy. A high-quality home literacy environment had a strong effect on the growth of children’s emergent abilities, even after controlling for child characteristics. High-quality early care and education environments, as defined by structural attributes of the program such as class size, had a modest impact on the growth of emergent literacy skills for some but not all children. When high-quality early education was defined in terms of teacher interaction, children who are exposed to such care experienced an increase in growth of their emergent literacy abilities. This study provides an examination of individual and group paths toward literacy as an element of school readiness, including the role of environment in the development of literacy skills. These findings have implications for early education policy, especially relevant to state-funded preschool programs and Early Head Start, to provide insight into contexts in which policy and the investment of resources can contribute most effectively to early literacy development.

A predictable alphabet book was proposed as a natural way to observe emergent readers’ attempts to integrate their developing literacy skills and knowledge base, despite not yet having achieved conventional levels of reading. Study 1 examined how accuracy in identifying words in an alphabet book in kindergarten related with emergent skills measured in kindergarten and with subsequent reading ability. One hundred and three children completed tests of phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, and rapid naming in kindergarten and were audiotaped reading an alphabet book with their parent. Reading ability was assessed one year later. Correlations were consistent with previous research identifying phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary and rapid naming as significant correlates of emergent reading. Alphabet book accuracy correlated with subsequent reading, and the relative indirect effects of kindergarten phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge on Grade 1 reading through kindergarten alphabet book reading were significant. Findings supported the conceptualization of how well a child identifies words in an alphabet book as a representation of early skill integration. Study 2 built upon these findings by examining self-reported reading strategies. Siegler’s (1996) overlapping waves model was used as a framework, which emphasizes variability, adaptive choice, and gradual change in children’s problem solving. Ninety-one kindergarteners completed tests of phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and vocabulary, and read an experimentally designed alphabet book having pages of varying difficulty with a researcher twice over several months. Findings supported the three main features of the overlapping waves model. Children reported a variety of strategies across the book and on individual pages within it. They worked most quickly on the easiest pages, reported more strategies on the most difficult pages, and chose adaptively among their strategy repertoire. The number of strategies reported and the number of accurately labeled pages increased over time. The relative indirect effects of phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge on alphabet book accuracy through the use of graphophonemic strategies were significant. Findings support the application of the overlapping waves model to the domain of reading. Overall, these studies highlight the potential for using typical literacy activities to deepen our understanding of the process of learning to read.

No description available.

Background: There is a need for more well-controlled research on the relationship between vision and hearing limitations and emergent literacy to inform early literacy intervention. Two highly prevalent difficulties of early childhood, poor distance visual acuity and otitis media with effusion (OME), have been shown to be associated with literacy achievement. There is little research, however, on the relationship between these conditions and emergent literacy. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the relationships between (1) distance visual acuity and emergent letter name knowledge, and (2) OME status and emergent letter name knowledge in children at school entry. Method: A prospective cohort of children (N=298) was recruited at school entry. Participants were aged 5, did not require special education for high needs and spoke a nationally recognized language of New Zealand. Distance vision and tympanometry testing was performed and a parent report of OME was obtained. The Wechsler Individual Test of Letter Name Knowledge and the Vocabulary and Block Design sub-tests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were administered. Covariates of reading achievement were also measured. Results: Twenty three percent of children knew fewer than 4 letters at school entry, 31.9% had marginal distance visual acuity of 6/9 in one or both eyes and 37.2% had a history of ear infections and/or a B tympanometry test at school entry. Logistic regression tests demonstrated that both 6/9 vision (OR= 2.069, CI0.95=0.999-4.227) and OME status 10 (OR=1.846, CI0.95=1.034-3.297) were significantly associated with low letter name knowledge at school entry, controlling for covariates of emergent literacy. Another analysis showed that children with 6/9 vision and/or OME at school entry were also at greater risk for low letter knowledge (OR=2.187, CI0.95=1.067 – 4.484) than children with 6/6 vision and no OME at school entry. Conclusions: The results of the current study indicate that 6/9 distance vision and OME are risk factors for low letter name knowledge at school entry. These factors warrant greater consideration with regard to early literacy intervention, classroom teaching practices and future research.

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the learning of print concepts (PCs) by preschool children at risk for literacy problems using an experimental treatment: explicit, non-evocative print referencing. Children from low socio-economic status (SES) families have been determined to be at-risk for literacy learning problems including a reduced knowledge of print concepts. The study incorporated a multiple group (experimental and control) time series design with persistent insertion of treatment to those subjects who were assigned to the experimental condition. Participants included 25 children at-risk, ages 4:0- 4:11 (years: months) who qualified for pre-school services and for subsidized childcare (low SES). Participants received eligibility pre-testing and a standardized test of print concept knowledge (PCK).The children were randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition. Children in the experimental condition received three treatment sequences of two illustrated story books read to them each day for three days with the adult reader using the experimental treatment of verbal descriptions and gestures to point out PCs. At the end of each treatment sequence the children were tested for PCK. This intermittent testing helped determine which concepts were learned using this treatment and at what level of dosage of the treatment. Children in the control condition were periodically tested for their PCK and only receive the “business as usual” class room references to print. Results of data analysis indicated a significant increase in the learning of print concepts by the children enrolled in the experimental condition compared to those in the control condition and suggested that some print concepts were more easily learned using this intervention than others.

Denna studie handlar om pedagogers arbete med små barns tidiga littracitetsutveckling. Vårt syfte med studien var att undersöka hur verksamma pedagoger arbetar och tänker gällande miljöns erbjudanden likväl som den egna rollen för att väcka och fånga upp barns intresse och lärande i litteracitetsaktiviteter i spontana situationer. För att uppnå detta har datainsamlingen innefattat såväl observationer av pedagogers arbete med barn under icke styrda aktiviteter, samt efterföljande intervjuer med pedagogerna. Resultatet har visat att pedagogernas individuella kunskapsnivå i området varierar och verksamhetens utformning har varit mer fördelaktig på de avdelningar där pedagogerna besitter en större kunskap. Detta kan antas påverka i vilken utsträckning de tar sig an rollen som stöttande och inspirerande pedagog i och till litteracitets-aktiviteter. Genom analys av observationer och intervjuer synliggjordes det kopplingar mellan miljöns erbjudanden och pedagogernas kunskap för området.Vi upplever att pedagogernas intresse och vilja att arbeta på ett litteracitetsfrämjande sätt finns men att detta inte synliggjorts under studien. / <p>Godkännande datum: 2018-06-10</p>

abstract: As digital media practices become readily available in today's classrooms, literacy and literacy instruction are changing in profound ways (Alvermann, 2010). Professional organizations emphasize the importance of integrating new literacies (New London Group, 1996) practices into language-arts instruction (IRA, 2009; NCTE, 2005). As a result, teachers search for effective ways to incorporate the new literacies in an effort to engage students. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the potential of digital storytelling as participatory media for writing instruction. This case study was conducted during the fall semester of 2012 in one first-grade classroom and one second-grade classroom in the Southwestern United States. The study addressed ten interrelated research questions relating to how primary-grade students performed in relation to the Common Core writing standards, how they were motivated, how they formed a meta- language to talk about their writing, how they developed identities as writers, and how they were influenced by their teachers' philosophies and instructional approaches. Twenty-two first-grade students and 24 second-grade students used the MovieMaker software to create digital stories of personal narratives. Data included field notes, interviews with teachers and students, teacher journals, my own journal, artifacts of teachers' lesson plans, photographs, students' writing samples, and their digital stories. Qualitative data were analyzed by thematic analysis (Patton, 1990) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2011). Writing samples were scored by rubrics based on the Common Core State Standards. The study demonstrated how digital storytelling can be used to; (a) guide teachers in implementing new literacies in primary grades; (b) illustrate digital storytelling as writing; (c) develop students' meta-language to talk about writing; (d) impact students' perceptions as writers; (e) meet Common Core State Standards for writing; (f) improve students' skills as writers; (g) build students' identities as writers; (h) impact academic writing; (i) engage students in the writing process; and (j) illustrate the differences in writing competencies between first- and second-grade students. The study provides suggestions for teachers interested in incorporating digital storytelling in primary-grade classrooms. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2013

The rationale for this study was to evaluate the home literacy environments of educators and non-educators to investigate whether educators provide "richer" home environments than non-educator mothers. This research explores the mothers' perceptions of their children, views of reading, methods of promoting a positive reading environment, dealing with personal demands and emotions, and their expectations related to promoting reading. The participants in the study are 2 elementary school teachers with preschool children and 2 non-educator mothers with preschool children. Results indicated that being an educator is not an isolated characteristic of providing a rich home environment. The educational attainment of the mother was discovered to have greater influence on home literacy environment than the mother's profession. Higher educated mothers provided richer home environments than their less educated counterparts.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur det går till när bibliotekarier inom projektet Bokstart skall göra urvalet av böcker till förskolors kapprumsbibliotek, samt vilka kriterier de utgår från i detta arbete. Studien syftar även till att undersöka hur vårdnadshavarna på bokstartsförskolorna upplever det befintliga barnboksutbudet i kapprumsbiblioteken. Den empiri som ligger till grund för studien samlades in genom intervjuer med bibliotekarier samt enkätformulär till vårdnadshavare på bokstartsförskolorna. Empirin har analyserats och diskuterats utifrån ett organisationsteoretiskt perspektiv (Flaa m.fl., 1998), samt de centrala teoretiska begrepp som studien utgår ifrån, dvs. samverkan, samarbete och samordning, samt literacy, emergent literacy, family literacy och mångfald.  Resultatet visar att samtliga bibliotekarier redogör för en och samma process när det kommer till urvalet av böcker till kapprumsbiblioteken, närmare bestämt att detta sker i ett samarbete med kapprumsansvarig personal på respektive förskola. Studiens resultat pekar dock på betydelsen av ett fungerande samarbete med personalen på förskolan, detta för att bibliotekarierna skall kunna få information om den barngrupp som de skall anpassa urvalet efter. Studien synliggjorde även vilka aspekter de enskilda bibliotekarierna tar i beaktande när de gör sina urval. Därtill visar resultatet att vårdnadshavarna vid bokstartsförskolorna i stora drag ställer sig positiva till det utbud av böcker som de erbjuds i kapprumsbiblioteken. Närmare hälften av vårdnadshavarna anser dessutom att kapprumsbiblioteket har ökat deras barns intresse för läsning och böcker. Överlag bekräftar studien tidigare forskning, bland annat vikten av att yrkesverksamma gör medvetna val av böcker så att det finns något som passar alla barn, samt betydelsen av att böckerna speglar den mångfald av individer som finns i samhället (Koss, 2015; Lynch, 2016; Price, Ostrosky &amp; Mouzourou, 2016). Studien har i sin helhet gett en bild av hur betydelsefulla kapprumsbiblioteken kan vara om samarbetet fungerar så att budskapet om läsningens och böckernas betydelse sträcker sig ända från biblioteket till hemmet via förskolan.