The study focuses on the beliefs of Arabic-speaking mothers in Israel relating to early literacy, and the relations between their beliefs and their children's actual early literacy skills. Participants included 113 mothers and their 5-6-year-old preschool children. At the families' homes, mothers reported about the richness of the home literacy…

The study addressed the question of continuity in literacy achievements from kindergarten to first grade among Arabic-speaking children in Israel. We examined (1) how age and family socio-economic status (SES) predict children's literacy skills in kindergarten and (2) how age, SES, and early literacy skills in kindergarten predict literacy…

We investigated the effects of a highly rated commercial electronic book (e-book) for young children on kindergarteners' emergent literacy skills within the context of paired peer versus individual use of the e-book. The sample of 110 kindergarteners had a mean age of 5.64 years and approximately equal numbers of boys and girls, randomly chosen…

The researchers addressed two questions: (1) Does maternal reading mediation and family home literacy environment (HLE) relate to children's emergent literacy (EL) level? and (2) Do the relationships among these variables differ as a function of socioeconomic strata (SES) level. A total of 94 5-6-year-old children, 47 from low SES (LSES) and 47…

We investigated how SES, grade level, and book reading experiences are related to children's writing self-efficacy as well as to their knowledge of "good writing" and "writing difficulties." The sample included 199 middle-high (HSES) and low (LSES) SES children (63 second graders, 67 fourth graders, and 69 sixth graders).…