Texting-based programs are increasingly used to support parents as their child's first teacher and create links between home and school. However, there is scant evidence about the influence of program implementation on parent uptake and attrition--a key component of such programs. This article describes the design and delivery of Kindytxt, a…

The purpose of this article is to share a family literacy activity geared particularly for the K-6 level in which parents share with teachers valuable knowledge about their children's cultural backgrounds. This multicultural bookmaking activity, a family literacy approach, builds critical cultural understandings between parents, teachers, and…

The study investigated how parental belief and family socio economic status (SES) were related to the home literacy environment and to early literacy-related skills in a foreign language (English). Eighty-six Chinese children in kindergarten (Mage = 5 years 5 months, 44 girls) were assessed on English phonological awareness, English receptive…

Young children develop understandings about literacy from birth through experiences of print in their home environments. Today, written text is often present in children's homes in both print and "digital" forms. What kind of technologies are young children accessing at home and for what purposes? This paper discusses research findings…

Despite being a critical emergent literacy skill and an indicator of risk for later reading difficulties, relatively little is known about how alphabet knowledge develops over time. This study utilized a person-centered approach and longitudinal sample of 998 preschool-aged children (M = 56.50 months old) to examine patterns in letter name and…

Based on the Home Literacy Model, this study explored a refined model of home literacy activities and their relations with children's emergent literacy skills in a linguistic and socio-economic diverse sample of 214 Dutch kindergartners (mean age 4 years and 7 months, 46% girls and 29% monolingual speakers of Dutch). The study examined a typology…

Purpose: We aim to identify the most accurate model for predicting adolescent (Grade 9) reading difficulties (RD) in reading fluency and reading comprehension using 17 kindergarten-age variables. Three models (neural networks, linear, and mixture) were compared based on their accuracy in predicting RD. We also examined whether the same or a…

Research Findings: The current study examined the use of a newly developed instrument for measuring parental literacy beliefs in a highly diverse urban Dutch sample of 35 parents, participating in a family literacy program. The instrument was used to explore a new conceptualization of parental literacy beliefs and associations between beliefs and…

This study examined the free book giving program of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and its influence upon storybook reading and early literacy within one county-wide setting in the United States. Family literacy and early literacy experiences are known to be critical to young children's literacy development. The study found that children who…

Reading identities are the ways that a person constructs the self as a reader across contexts and time. This study explores reading identities as a developmental process in multilingual children in prekindergarten and kindergarten. Participants were six children ages three to four participating in a Chinese-English family literacy program over a…

This paper is a quantitative synthesis of research on home literacy environment (HLE) and children's English as a second language (ESL) learning outcomes through a meta-analysis of 18 articles in kindergarten, primary, and secondary school students (N = 4401) carried out between 2000 and 2018. It examines the associations between HLE factors and…

Research Findings: Home literacy practices are an important variable in the development of literacy skills among children. However, several questions regarding the relationship between home literacy practices and writing are unanswered. The objective of this correlational study is to examine the relationship between reading-related and…

This study shows that home literacy activities contribute to kindergarten children's higher-level comprehension processes, namely knowledge integration and knowledge access. Kindergarten children completed measures assessing literacy and language skills and then their performances on these measures were correlated with home literacy activities,…

It is hypothesized that variability found in the effects of family literacy programs results from differences in implementation by parents. In this study, the implementation and effects of a Dutch program were examined in a sample of 207 kindergarteners (mean age at pre-test: 64 months). No main intervention effects on children's literacy…

The researcher in this study examined parents' perceptions of the engagement activities in their homes. Parents of elementary school students in one southeastern United States school district were asked to participate in this study. Findings related to literacy, academic, and family engagement. Parents' preparedness to assist their children with…