Providing early literacy training for children is a vital part of establishing the foundation for the learning they will do for the rest of their lives, so it is important that we do the right work from the start. Unfortunately, too many children are still reading below grade level by third grade, and instead of reading to learn new materials,…

This mixed-methods study examined caregiver engagement with literacy resources provided by the Governor's Early Literacy Foundation (GELF) in Tennessee. The research was rooted in Epstein et al.'s types of parental involvement, Hoover-Dempsey's parental involvement process model, and Gonzalez et al.'s funds of knowledge framework. The study…

The development of emergent literacy, a precursor to formal reading, has been linked to subsequent conventional literacy skills in Chinese children. The factors important for acquiring Chinese reading skills, such as phonological and morphological awareness, have primarily been studied in primary school children rather than preschoolers. The…

Parents play a crucial role in shaping children's emergent literacy through shared book reading. Shared book reading can foster literacy acquisition, promote vocabulary development, and improve print awareness, phonological awareness, and story comprehension (e.g., Bus et al., 1995; De Temple & Snow, 2003; Mol et al., 2008; Snow et al., 1998).…

This dissertation portfolio is comprised of three first-authored pieces of writing that investigate the oral language and emergent literacy development of Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Each piece features a unique but complementary aim. The first study investigates group differences on a battery of emergent…

The current research builds upon the sociocultural orientation to family literacy with the creation of a community-based family literacy experience, "the preschoolers' book club," for a group of white, middle-class preschool children and their families. These families and their shared literacy experiences were framed as a set of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between family literacy practices and children's early literacy development. Drawing from a developmental-ecological framework, this study modified existing surveys (e.g., Family Involvement Questionnaire, a.k.a. FIQ, by Fantuzzo, Tighe, & Childs, 2000) to develop the "Family…

This research study investigated the at-home literacy behaviors and experiences of young children before and during their kindergarten year. Research has shown that the frequency and quality of at-home literacy experiences can either hinder or hamper children as their formal schooling begins (Fletcher, Cross, Tanney, Schneider, & Finch, 2008;…