A longitudinal study of literacy experiences, the role of parents, and children's literacy development

This study investigated the literacy experiences and attainment of 42 children aged \n3 to 7, who had attended preschool education in a city in the North of England. \nData were collected through parent interviews before nursery entry; literacy \nassessment at school entry, and at age seven; and by parent, teacher and child \ninterviews. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were employed. \n \n \nFour measures of literacy development at age seven were used: children's reading \nbook level, writing ability and standardised scores for reading and English at seven. \nFactors before school entry shown to be significant were: vocabulary scores, number \nof letters known, how well children wrote their name and a phrase, whether they \nlistened to stories at nursery, and how often they were read to at home. This was \ninfluenced by earlier home factors; by having access to books, being read to from \nstorybooks, and having books read in their entirety, the age parents started reading \nto them, how many nursery rhymes they knew, and parents pointing out \nenvironmental print. By seven, other significant factors were parents' knowledge \nabout school literacy, and how often children read to parents at home. Several \nfindings confirmed those of previous studies. Others were new: having a favourite \nbook before nursery, choosing to read books in nursery, access to home computers \nat seven, children storing literacy resources indiscriminately, parents reading more \nthan newspapers and magazines, and parents providing examples of day-to-day \nliteracy. Process variables appeared to exert greater effects on children's \nperformance than status variables, such as social class, mother's employment and \nqualifications, and relatives with literacy difficulties. \n \n \nHome literacy experiences for the majority of children were barely acknowledged \nin school, and home learning for children with problems was often unsupported by \nschool. For most children, homes provided rich, complex and powerful \nenvironments for literacy learning.