Examining an Extended Home Literacy Model: The Mediating Roles of Emergent Literacy Skills and Reading Fluency

• Published in: Scientific studies of reading Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 273 - 288
• Main Authors: Inoue, Tomohiro, Georgiou, George K., Parrila, Rauno, Kirby, John R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 04.07.2018; Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Accuracy; Alphabets; Early literacy; Elementary education; Emergent Literacy; English language; Family Environment; Fluency; Foreign Countries; Goodness of Fit; Grade 1; Grade 2; Grade 3; Intelligence Tests; Kindergarten; Literacy; Mediation Theory; Naming; Oral Reading; Parents; Parents as Teachers; Phonological Awareness; Phonology; Predictor Variables; Primary Education; Reading accuracy; Reading Achievement; Reading acquisition; Reading Aloud to Others; Reading Comprehension; Reading Fluency; Reading Instruction; Reading Rate; Reading Skills; Reading Tests; Shared reading; Socioeconomic status; Statistical Analysis; Structural Equation Models; Verbal Ability; Vocabulary; Vocabulary Development; Canada
• ISSN: 1088-8438; 1532-799X
• DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2018.1435663

We examined the developmental relationships between home literacy environment (parent teaching, shared book reading) and emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, rapid naming speed) in kindergarten, reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, and reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3 in a sample of Canadian children learning to read English (N = 214). Results from a latent variable model showed that parent teaching predicted letter knowledge and phonological awareness, and shared book reading predicted vocabulary and rapid naming speed after controlling for family socioeconomic status. Moreover, both parent teaching and shared book reading contributed indirectly to reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, which then mediated the effects of home literacy environment on reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3. The results suggest that the effects of home literacy environment on later reading development are distributed via more pathways than previously thought.