Access to books and a rich language environment at home are important for children's language development. In this study we explored self-reported reading practices in families in Norway (N = 1001) to gain insight into the reading habits parents have with their young children, and the factors that best explain book reading in Norwegian homes. By…

A child's home environment has been shown to be related to the development of early numeracy skills in some countries. However, significant relationships between home learning environment and math achievement have not consistently been found, and likely vary across different cultural and socio-political contexts. Here we explored the home…

The Home Learning Environment (HLE) focuses on everyday learning habits in families to support the development of children's early cognitive competencies. A growing number of studies have assessed the HLE by using different conceptual approaches and various assessment methods, often focusing on either the home literacy environment or the home…

For decades, educational researchers have reported joint book reading with caregivers promotes children's emergent literacy development (Bus et al., 1995; Demir-Lira et al., 2019; NELP, 2008; Pelligrini et al., 1990). However, the bulk of this research has been conducted with mothers (Bingham, 2007; Bojczyk, 2016; Roberts et al., 2005). Mothers…

The authors examined children's access to books in 153 four-year-olds from low-income, U.S. ethnic-minority families. Mothers reported on the number of books available to their children and the variety of books their children had, such as concept books about letters, numbers, and shapes and narrative books about cultural beliefs and relationships.…

Children's language and cognitive development are informed by adult spoken language and parental literacy behaviors, although their relative contributions have not been evaluated. Using digital audio-recorders, we unobtrusively observed the spoken language of 107 children, aged 24 to 48 months (M = 32, SD = 6.5), and their families over 3 days (M…

We tested possible mediating effect of 12 variables within the home environment on the link between maternal education level and Language and Literacy and Math scores in a sample of Chinese second graders (N = 303-306). Data on maternal education and home environment variables were obtained from the parents in January of 2019, while data on test…

Screen media occupy an increasing role in young children's play and learning environments. This paper advances the current discussion of the changing digital lives of children, with new insights of media use in the homes of Australian families (N = 406). Parents reported their child's technology ownership, engagement with traditional and new…

There have been increasing demands to improve Swedish children's reading habits, triggered by poor PISA results in 2013, and public healthcare has stepped in as a strong reading-promoting actor. Drawing on the emerging field of valuation research in STS, the paper explores the values enacted in health-related information brochures about reading…

This paper presents findings from a study of family literacy provision in England and focuses on the effects of family literacy programmes on the home literacy environment. The fieldwork took place between September 2013 and December 2014 and involved 27 school-based programmes for pupils aged between 5 and 7, and their parents. The study used…

For the present review, we analyzed 28 studies researching the effects of interventions for parents with less education on the oral language development of their young children (ages 3-8). Two groups of interventions were distinguished: shared reading and other home activities. Within each group, we distinguished three categories of strategies:…

Globally, there is great interest in enhancing young children's literacy development as a route to improving worldwide literacy. To contribute to this area of interest, this paper reports findings from a multi-pronged early-literacy program designed to improve the print-knowledge of young children in Yucatec Mayan villages. The school-based…

At start-up of a book distribution programme (Dolly Parton's Imagination Library) in a southeastern United States community, we examined baseline relationships between at-home shared book reading (SBR) and children's language/literacy abilities and skills at kindergarten entry. One hundred fifty-two parent/child dyads participated; children (53%…

The early home language environment, and parents in particular, form the foundation of children's language development. In this article, Dina Kapengut and Kimberly Noble explore the intersection of neuroscience and developmental psychology to explain how language experiences in the home, and the "home learning environment" more broadly,…

Purpose: The aims of the present research were to determine (a) the age at which children with typical development understand the concept of opposite, (b) whether this is related to other cognitive abilities or experiences, and (c) whether there is early implicit understanding of the concept. Method: Children (N = 204) between 3 and 5 years of age…