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There is a great deal of variability in how families read and interact with picture books. To understand why reading practices may (or may not) relate to language outcomes, a necessary step to understand what occurs in the home. The goal of this work is to better understand the frequency and nature of picture book reading at home with children between the ages of 0 and 30 months in the United States. In an online survey, 282 caregivers answered questions about their picture book reading habits. Book reading was overall very common. Over 90% of families reported reading at least weekly to their child and nearly 70% reported reading daily, with caregivers of older children reporting reading slightly more frequently than caregivers of younger children. Caregivers also reported reading picture book text as well as a range of extra-textual activities. These textual and extra-textual behaviors varied across families and varied with child age and language skills. This study provides insight into how much, and what kind of linguistic input children encounter during picture book reading, and how this input may vary with age.

Most recent research on language learning and identity emphasizes on investing learners' capital as affordance to affirm their identities (Darvin & Norton, 2015; Norton, 2013). Learners' capital refers to prior knowledge, home literacies/native languages. Drawing on data from English language academies from Pakistan, this study finds a conflicting picture to the one advocated in the investment model. Gripped by the "deficit ideology," teachers and students tend to "disinvest" in the native languages. Analyzing data through the conceptual lenses of "Neoliberal Governmentality" and "Linguistic Entrepreneurship," we find that "enterprise culture" governs learners' mode of investment. It reflects in their construction of English learning as a form of entrepreneurship, celebrating competition, self-entrepreneurship, and relentless self-improvement. Given the "disinvestment" tendency, the current investment model seems to overlook the power-driven linguistic hierarchies, and linguistic inequalities that may hamper the use of such capital. The paper discusses decolonial pedagogy as an alternative to current ELT.

Family engagement is pivotal to student development and academic achievement, particularly for students of color with disabilities and those from historically underserved culturally and linguistically diverse communities (Delale-O'Connor et al., 2020; Fehrer & Tognozzi, 2018; Impact of Family Engagement, n.d.). Unfortunately, the marginalization of diverse students and families is frequently reinforced within the education system, and educators are generally unprepared to effectively engage diverse families. This article illustrates how culture-centered learning using home and community supports, can facilitate successful family engagement and improve student achievement. The article provides practical, culturally responsive strategies for student success with vignettes modeling inclusive methods of family engagement.

Haitian Creole, or Krey'ol, has a unique history because it is historically an oral language; however, significant efforts have been made to standardize its orthography and to promote its literacy base. It also comes from a diglossic society: Haitian Creole is spoken in familiar settings such as the home, while French is used in formal settings such as government spaces. While Haitian Creole is the source of national pride for many Haitians, it is unfortunately stigmatized by many, and many Haitians do not read or write in Haitian Creole. This brings up new questions regarding parents' needs within a literacy program. For example, it was unknown if Haitian families in Miami-Dade would want books in Haitian Creole for their children. As such, we also sought to examine how the family reading program Baralt et al. 729 could best support Haitian families' needs in addition to other minoritized families. To this end, the overall aims of this study were to: 1. Characterize the literacy environment of families in Miami-Dade County, including (a) books and supporting materials, (b) time spent engaging in shared reading, and (c) facilitators as well as barriers of reading. 2. Learn about Miami-Dade families' hopes and goals for their children's literacy, as well as their concerns and worries. 3. Identify family needs and preferences regarding the design of a family reading program, including (a) books, (b) guides, (c) trusted resources for support, and (d) preferred modes of communication between the program and participants.

Book distribution or book provision programs that provide free books to families with young children have become increasingly popular approaches to promote home literacy practices. This qualitative study aimed to understand parents' perceptions of the implementation of a book provision program and its impact on their families' literacy practices and behaviors. Forty-three parents participated in twelve focus groups in which they were asked about the perceived benefits of participating in the program. Participant parents were born in the U.S., Mexico, Central and South America, and Africa, had spent more than five years living in the U.S., and had attained different levels of education. At home, parents spoke only English, mostly Spanish, or two different languages in addition to English. Thirty-nine percent of the parents were Black (not all of whom were African American), and 53% were Latinx. Findings suggested that parents had positive views towards the program's impact on their family's literacy practices. Specifically, Spanish-speaking families reported appreciation for learning new ways of engaging their children in shared reading. Parents considered the opportunities offered by the program, congruent with their cultural models. They believed that participating in the program allow them to be part of a community and that shared reading was a means to strengthen their relationship with their children. Results highlight the importance of considering families' cultural models in the design and implementation of book provision programs.

Using the Pennsylvania Department of Education Family/Community Standards, university professors from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford collaborated with multiple community clubs such as the Rotary and Kiwanis as well as local agencies including St. Bonaventure University on the development and implementation of a family literacy day event that assisted a rural community with increasing family literacy engagement. Seventeen community agencies/clubs and forty-two university students engaged in event coordination. Thirty-two families, including 82 children, attended. These standards aided in an efficacious first year event.

This report from the field shares information describing a pilot program that addressed the literacy needs of middle school culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. One of the authors played a key role in designing and implementing the Building Bonds family literacy program. This program was made to engage these students and their families in culturally relevant, literacy-based activities, bringing the students, their families, and their teachers together on a monthly basis. Steps for creating the program are discussed, including forming an action team, inviting participants and their families, and setting up successful meetings and interactions. Elements of a successful meeting included access to multilingual and culturally appropriate texts, thought-provoking discussion questions offered in the home language and in English, and total family involvement. To determine impact, feedback was gathered, including responses to surveys and comments in informal conversations. In addition, participants' requests for continued programming are shared.

This study determined the level of home learning support given by the parents and the level of reading performance of primary pupils in Alat-Alatin Elementary School, a multi-grade school in Lopez West District, Lopez, Quezon. This utilized the quantitative method anchored by a descriptive-correlational design. Moreover, the researchers used a survey questionnaire consisting of 15 questions pertaining to parental involvement, home learning resources, and home literacy practices to determine the level of home learning support given by the parents and conducted a reading session to determine the reading performance of the primary pupils. The study found that home learning support is sometimes given to primary pupils, and the level of reading performance of the primary pupils in Alat-Alatin Elementary School during the implementation of modular distance learning is at a frustration level. Using Spearman's rho non-parametric statistical tool, the Alpha level is 0.05. Since 0.395 is greater than the alpha level (0.05), the null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, based on the result, there is no significant relationship between home learning support extended by the parents and the reading performance (in both oral reading and comprehension scores) of the pupils. Furthermore, the researchers designed Project BASA (Be A Servant Alat-Alatinian), a reading intervention program in distance learning settings that aims to improve the reading performance.

Visuals in picturebooks play an important role in supporting children's reading comprehension and literacy development. This qualitative case study analyzes three American families' shared reading practices at home by analyzing their online surveys for family literacy environments, reading logs for a month, mother interviews, and video observation of their shared reading at home. The analysis of the collected data categorizes children's responses to visuals into three major themes: reflecting personal preferences and thoughts on visuals, interpreting visuals based on prior knowledge, and misreading visuals that interfere with understanding content. The discussion focuses on the roles of visuals in informational picturebooks and biographies and parents' support of children's reading comprehension using visuals.

This study investigated relationships among home reading practices, shared book reading (SBR) behaviors, and child literacy outcomes in young children with cochlear implants in Baltimore, Maryland. Parents (N=18) completed a home reading questionnaire and recorded themselves reading books with their children at home. Shared book reading sessions were coded for interactive reading behaviors. Children's early language skills and literacy skills were also assessed. We explored variability in these behaviors with regard to demographic characteristics and type of book; these exploratory analyses revealed that parents used more literacy teaching techniques when reading the wordless picture book and that parent interaction and engagement and literacy teaching techniques were more frequent with younger children than with older children. While many families frequently used interactive reading behaviors, our analysis did not find significant relationships between the parent behaviors and children's literacy scores. However, there was an interaction between the "amount" of reading and cochlear implant experience such that more cochlear implant experience was associated with better reading outcomes "only" for the group of children who received more reading time. In a sample of young children with cochlear implants, reading time, cochlear implant experience, and child language skills were better predictors of reading outcomes than parents' frequency of SBR behaviors alone.

The Home Literacy model predicts different outcomes depending on formal and informal literacy practices carried out at home. However, this model does not explicitly consider the potential differences that the media (paper vs. tablets) in which these practices are carried out can have on performance. The present study explored this issue. Participants were 136 children aged 6-7 years old and their parents. The different activities performed at home were analysed through reports of the parents, and children were assessed at school for their reading performance (decoding and comprehension). Results showed how formal practices using traditional materials predicted reading comprehension, but informal practices did not predict any performance measure. The digital home literacy environment showed no impact on reading performance, suggesting that two different environments (paper and digital) might exist, each one of them having differential impacts on performance. Implications for research and education are discussed.

Background: This paper investigates multiple antecedents of literacy in children, such as demographics, child reading behaviour, parent reading behaviour and family context. Methods: The study included a Romanian sample of 924 primary schoolers (Grades 1-4) and their parents; children and parents were tested with a standardised measure of literacy, and parents answered a number of self-report questions about their and their child's literacy-related behaviours. Results: Regression analyses and relative predictor weights showed a significant positive association between child literacy and child behaviour (time currently spent by the child reading books), as well as with family context (especially parent literacy), followed by demographics and, to a lesser degree, with parent behaviour. Conclusions: The findings provide a first solid understanding of the children's literacy phenomenon in the less investigated educational and cultural environment of Romania and encourage further research on this important topic.

This study examined the within- and cross-language relationships between intrinsic language learning motivation, home literacy environment (shared book reading, parental literacy involvement, and parent perceived child literacy interest), and receptive vocabulary in 185 bilingual preschoolers and 233 primary school children in Singapore. Age differences were also examined. Unlike the motivation decline commonly observed in middle childhood, the primary school children demonstrated higher levels of intrinsic motivation than the preschoolers in both English and the second language (L2). Results showed a motivation gap between English and children's L2 in primary school children but not in preschoolers. The hierarchical regression results revealed that intrinsic motivation and the three facets of home literacy environment (HLE) were differentially involved in receptive vocabulary across languages and age groups. Within-language relations showed that intrinsic motivation only predicted receptive vocabulary in English among primary school children, but not among preschoolers. Among primary school children, parent perceived child literacy interest in L2 was the only significant predictor of L2 receptive vocabulary; among preschoolers, shared book reading was the only significant predictor. Cross-language relations revealed that parental literacy involvement in English negatively predicted L2 receptive vocabulary in primary school children, and there were no L2 effects on English receptive vocabulary.

The importance of parent-child shared book reading (SBR) is well established. However, there is a limited understanding of parental interaction patterns during SBR among preschool children in the Indian context. Using a cross-sectional observational study design, mothers' verbal and nonverbal behavior during SBR was analyzed in 26 Kannada-speaking mother-child dyads. Relationships between the quantity of SBR experiences and parental attitudes and beliefs about storybook reading were examined. Findings revealed that mothers predominantly used dialogic reading strategies followed by extra-textual talk, print referencing strategies, and nonverbal strategies. Few correlations were found between parental attitudes and beliefs and the quantity of SBR experiences. Implications for parent training in SBR are discussed.

In this metasynthesis, we examined 21 highly cited qualitative studies on family literacy scholarship conducted by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) scholars from 1981 to 2019. This metasynthesis integrates findings to present a counterstory that challenges dominant narratives in family literacy. By amplifying often overlooked or erased narratives, we highlight diverse themes including family literacy as activism, its temporal aspects, barriers, challenges, hybridity, emotionality, bonding, spiritual literacies, and healing practices. These themes enhance racial, linguistic, and cultural awareness in scholars' engagement with families and communities. This metasynthesis broadens the conceptualization of family literacy, encouraging a reevaluation of our understanding of families, literacies, and research representation. Additionally, it underscores the critical importance of acknowledging and authentically representing BIPOC scholars and their participants' stories.

The development of 4- to 6-year-olds' narrative skills was investigated in relation to their receptive vocabulary, grammar, and home literacy environment. At Time One, 82 children aged 4 to 6 years completed standardised assessments of cognitive ability, vocabulary, and grammar. Narrative production and comprehension were assessed by the narration of a wordless picture book and questions about the book's content, respectively. Parents completed a questionnaire about home literacy practices. Concurrently, vocabulary explained unique variance in narrative comprehension, but not narrative production. In addition, the teaching of literacy-related skills in the home was negatively related to both narrative comprehension and production, and the frequency with which parents and children engaged in interactive reading was positively related to narrative production. One year later, one aspect of the home literacy environment (print exposure) explained unique variance in later narrative comprehension, after controlling for earlier narrative skills. These data show that vocabulary and grammar skills and home literacy practices are related to different types of narrative skills and suggest that literacy experiences in the home make a unique contribution to the development of narrative comprehension and production.

A plethora of services in early childhood care and education has not sufficiently resulted in equitable practice for families and, specifically, families of Color across the globe. Despite numerous programs geared toward alleviating literacy challenges, families of Color worldwide continue to experience Eurocentric approaches to addressing the literacies of their children, as well as the practices they hold dear. This insistence on programming that is focused on family literacy and not "family literacies" has created a context where the playing field remains unlevel, and all students are not provided with equal opportunities. Moreover, even with largely sanctioned programming, the potentiality of the multiple literacies of families of Color has been left untapped and thus obscured, making it impossible to identify the meaningful contributions that such families can provide to the field. The authors argue in this article that this obscured potentiality, engendered through centuries of assumptions made about the supposed 'illiteracy' of families of Color, and inadvertently reinforced by the silencing of parents and families of Color in drawing from the imagination of their children and on the extant narratives of their daily lives, continues to be maintained through Eurocentric mechanisms that tout a false notion of what young children of Color can and cannot do. In response, parent-of-Color stories is presented as a mechanism for recognizing and restoring the potentiality of families of Color worldwide.

To explore the ways in which Latinx older siblings support younger siblings during shared reading, researchers investigated the following question with three Latinx families in the U.S.: "How are older siblings modeling and intentionally supporting focal children's cognitive self-regulation in the context of shared reading?" Analyses of video recorded interactions across six visits revealed that older siblings intentionally supported focal children's cognitive self-regulation by fostering autonomy and choice through the use of verbal and nonverbal cues to guide attention, using prosody to engage their sibling, and to initiate reading beyond resistance, and vicarious modeling of metacognitive processes by engaging in self-corrections and demonstrating positive affect during shared reading interactions. Findings highlight the importance of older siblings, particularly sisters, as key figures in the sociocultural context of development for Latinx younger siblings in the U.S.

School to home communication has often been seen as a one-way path, with homework and other materials serving children and families while teachers were the facilitators. When schools were forced to rapidly switch instruction from face-to-face classrooms to entering kitchens, living rooms, and other spaces to deliver virtual instruction, teachers were suddenly "in" the homes of their students. Findings from this qualitative study of 11 practicing teachers showed a new appreciation for family literacy efforts. Virtual doors were opened so that teachers had increased opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of cultural and academic practices in the home. Teachers now had access to families' funds of knowledge to enhance classroom curriculum and practices in the virtual space. As schools reopened and teacher, parent, and caregiver relationships returned to a more distant space, these participants described small but significant changes in the way they planned to engage parents and caregivers in the future.

This paper describes an academic service learning project that enabled teacher education candidates to create research-based family literacy activities around a diverse selection of children's books. The book and family literacy activities were donated to local families at a Title I school during a reading night event. Teacher education candidates reflected on the experience of creating the family literacy project and their future plans for involving families in their students' literacy learning.

In the "Bilingual Literacy Development Model: A holistic way to support Spanish-speaking children" research study, I studied bilingual families over a 5-month period in their home environments through home visits. Drawing from data obtained through home visits, including interviews with mothers and observations of family literacy practices in the home environment, this study examines children's bilingual literacy development. The findings are presented in an adapted Bilingual Literacy Development Model I created. The model was adapted from the work of researchers Leseman and de Jong (1998), and Bronfenbrenner's ecological system (1977, 1995) where four facets were developed: literacy and language opportunities, constructional practices, literacy interactions, and socio-emotional quality of practices. Each of these facets are viewed from the lens of child, family, and society (the school or community) with specific activities identified that help to make a holistic bilingual child.

Background: Providing a rich home literacy environment (HLE) is considered to contribute to the development of students' reading comprehension. However, less research attention has been given to the underlying mechanisms that influence this relationship, including potential mediating characteristics. The present study aims to assess whether students' reading enjoyment, reading motivation and reading frequency mediate different aspects of the active and passive HLE and reading comprehension of Grade 4 students in Flanders (Belgium). Methods: This study uses the Flemish data of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021. Participants were 5114 students from 141 schools and their parents. The hypotheses were tested using a serial mediation model implemented through structural equation modelling. Results: We observed different associations between specific aspects of the HLE and fourth graders' reading comprehension. Both an active reading climate and the amount of books at home were found to be positively associated with students' reading comprehension. We found no contributions of parents' reading enjoyment and their own reading frequency to their child's reading comprehension. We found significant indirect effects of both the active reading climate and parents' reading enjoyment on students' reading comprehension, mediated through students' reading enjoyment, motivation and reading frequency. Additionally, we found evidence for an indirect pathway from the amount of books at home to students' reading comprehension, mediated by their reading frequency. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of conceptualizing HLE as a broad construct consisting of multiple components (e.g., activities, beliefs, availability of literacy-related resources at home), as these aspects are related to students' reading comprehension development in different ways.

The purpose of this study was to use an asset-based approach to explore a resettled refugee student's interests and experiences at home after her family had resettled in a U.S. city. The qualitative data collected from the focal participant included field notes from home visits, video recordings of family conversations, drawings and texts created by the participant, and informal conversations. Although the focal participant's family members had experienced hardships during their refugee journey and before their resettlement, the findings focused on how the participant's present experiences related to her interests and how different forms of Yosso's community cultural wealth capital were represented in her narratives. Recommendations for children's literature and the education of resettled refugee children are also discussed.

Applying sociological conceptualisations of temporality in the context of families, this article explores shared reading between parents and young children. The research draws on interviews with a sample of 29 parents/carers with pre-school children (predominantly mothers) from diverse backgrounds. Reading with young children provides an illustration of multiple, varied and enmeshed familial temporalities. It fulfils a purpose for families, cementing and maintaining relationships over time. Data show that reading in families is framed by measurable time, for example, as a finite resource or as shaped by routines. In theorizing reading as temporal, simultaneously as a commodity and as relational, illuminate a specific family practice. The relational framework deployed demonstrates that these familial temporalities are enmeshed and fluid. Findings point towards the value of applying sociological perspectives on family practices in educational research. Conclusions offer insights which have the potential to consolidate understandings and support for home literacy practices.

This academic service learning initiative enabled teacher education candidates to create research-based family literacy activities around a diverse selection of children's books. Each project included a detailed parent or caregiver letter, which provides an overview of the family literacy activity; materials and props; step-by-step procedures; prompting questions; ideas for differentiation to meet the needs of varied learning styles; and real-world extensions. As pre-service teachers selected from a menu of literacy strategies that fit their individual letter and project design, the concept of differentiation was being actively implemented. Pre-service teachers reflected on the experience of creating the family literacy project and their future plans for involving families in their students' literacy learning.

In this article we theorize the concept of altermundos literacies as they are enacted by parents in transborder families. We demonstrate how these parents, participants in an ethnographic study with mixed-status families in rural Puebla, México, write speculative narratives for their children's futures in ways that reject mononational norms. Altermundos literacies involve the activation of subaltern knowledges across mononational systems and complex literacy practices across papeles to dream-into-action a future designed by and for their lives. We draw on scholars of Black, Indigenous, Chicana, and Latinx futurity to demonstrate how families' altermundos challenge educational practices across borders and dream new possibilities into being. Our findings show how families' dreams navigate constraints imposed by systems of oppression within both the United States and México to varying degrees of success. Regardless, these families' altermundos literacies are invitations for all of us to co-dream futures beyond borders. Implications for researchers, school-based practitioners, and policymakers are discussed.

This study examines the "communal organizing literacies" of Latine/x immigrant families who organize for immigrant rights in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drawing from a subset of qualitative data (e.g., observant-participant fieldnotes, open-ended interviews, member checks, artifacts, and photographs) from a larger year-long practitioner inquiry study with an intergenerational group of 11 un/documented Latine/x immigrants, this research asks: "How do Latine/x immigrant families mobilize literacy in their immigrant rights organizing practice?" Through analysis grounded in the concept of a "communal pedagogy of resistance" (CPR), this study shows that Latine/x immigrants organize through communal organizing literacies that involve (a) reading and composing communal organizing literacy texts, and (b) enacting communal organizing literacy events on the streets, "moving forward" intersectional political mobilization that enacts a "communal" conceptualization of family. Implications include the need for education practitioners/scholars to expand their definition of family, reconceptualize intergenerational organizing as family engagement, and work with immigrant families as practice/policy/research partners.

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 literacy-based text-messaging program for parents with a child at Kindergarten in Western Australia, and examines the influence of recruitment method, area socioeconomic status, and teacher participation on parent uptake and attrition. Results indicate that embedding Kindytxt into a well-established family literacy program provided the infrastructure and mechanism for extensive program reach, and the recruitment method, specifically the involvement of the kindergarten teacher, significantly influenced parent registration. However, attrition rates were not significantly affected by the area socioeconomic status of participating schools, recruitment method, nor teacher participation in Kindytxt. The results suggest that teacher involvement may be the crucial factor in enabling parents to access texting programs, regardless of the socioeconomic status of the school community. The design elements may be used to inform future program development, and the research results highlight the importance of documenting and including the method of delivery as variables in the evaluation of program implementation.

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 vocabulary, English expressive vocabulary, Chinese receptive vocabulary, and nonverbal intelligence. Parents completed a questionnaire about family demographics, home literacy environment, and parental belief on the importance of early English literacy skills. Principal component analysis revealed three dimensions of home literacy environment: Formal Literacy Activity, Informal Language Exposure, and Passive Literacy Exposure. Results showed that parental belief and family SES were important predictors of home literacy environment, which further explained 44% of the variance in early English language and literacy skills. Parental belief indirectly predicted children's English receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary through Informal Language Exposure, and phonological awareness through Formal Literacy Activity. The results underpinned the importance of parents' involvement at home and the potential feasibility of interventions on parental beliefs in helping children develop early language and literacy skills in English as a foreign language.

Bilingual children demonstrate varying levels of proficiency in each of the two languages to which they are exposed. Even though it is widely acknowledged that bilingual children are not a homogenous group, existing studies on dual-language profiles in bilingual children have focused on expressive language profiles. In this study, we used the normative data from the Quick Interactive Language Screener: English-Spanish (QUILS:ES; de Villiers et al., 2021; Iglesias et al., 2021) and latent profile analysis to identify dual-language profiles in receptive language skills in a large sample of Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers. We also examined demographic, dual-language experience, and home literacy environment factors that contributed to receptive dual-language profile membership. The optimal model represents a three-profile solution, including a balanced-low profile, an English-dominant average profile, and a balanced-high profile. Comparing participants' profile membership against their age and risk status for language impairment based on the QUILS:ES screening results, we found that while being in an older age group significantly increases a child's likelihood of being in a balanced-high profile, an older child displaying a balanced-low profile is at a higher risk for language impairment. Age, socioeconomic status, and home literacy environment factors were found to be associated with strong dual-language skills, whereas (relative) dual-language experience did not predict profile membership. Together, these findings extend previous work that examined the heterogeneity within Spanish-English bilingual children by demonstrating substantial variability in their receptive language skills and providing insights into malleable factors that may be targeted to support dual-language development.

Chinese speakers are the second largest language minority group in the U.S., and transnational migration redefines their lives in many ways, including families' educational practices. This case study examined the English home literacy and language learning (EHLLL) practices of two transnational Chinese families during their year abroad while working and studying in the U.S. Research methods included observations, interviews, and discourse analysis. Our analysis uses Third Space theory to highlight the significance of participants' culturally hybrid literacy and learning practices. Influenced by their transnationalism, these families' homes -- and namely their EHLLL practices -- become an educational Third Space. Analysis focuses on three aspects of their EHLLL: (a) a parent--child shared-reading practice valued by this transnational Chinese community, which involved English-language storybooks and 'listen and repeat' (gen du) activity, (b) parents' new roles in children's EHLLL, through which they navigated major differences in Chinese versus American education systems, and (c) parent--child interactions that showed how home was a 'pedagogical safe house' for children facing the challenges of transnational education. This timely study illuminates the distinctive educational goals of transnational families who definitively plan to repatriate. It also provides needed insights into a large and growing, but poorly understood, population -- transnational Chinese families.

Background: The home literacy environment (HLE) has rarely been examined for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, including individuals with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome. Method: The current study surveyed carers of individuals with Down syndrome (n = 48) and Williams syndrome (n = 18) in the United Kingdom (UK). Results: The study reports that individuals with Down syndrome were rated higher in general reading skills and writing, while the Williams syndrome group scored higher for speaking. Yet, individuals with Down syndrome were more likely to engage in informal activities than instructional activities and the frequency of informal activities related to reading outcomes for those with Down syndrome but not Williams syndrome. Additionally, this study reports that age was not related to the HLE for both groups. Conclusion: This is the first study to report on the HLE of individuals with Williams syndrome and supports the key role of the HLE in the development of literacy skills for individuals with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome.

Adolescent mothers (AMs) often experience limited academic and financial attainment and higher rates of mental health disorders, which may affect their relationships with their children. Although children of AMs are at higher risk for developmental delays, there is no clear evidence of the relationships between mother characteristics and child outcomes. This descriptive study explored AMs' and their children's sociodemographic characteristics and language skills, home literacy environment, and the quality of mother-child interactions. Eight AM-child dyads were recruited from local school districts. Data were collected through questionnaires, standardized measures of language, and mother-child interactions. Most AMs demonstrated below-average language skills and most children had language scores that fell within the average range. AMs demonstrated strong affectionate behaviors, and emerging responsive, encouraging, and teaching behaviors when interacting with their children. This study provides unique data on AMs' language characteristics that have not been clearly published in the literature.

It has long been known that children who grow up in situations of economic and social disadvantage tend to have more difficulties when they enter school, and that these are often perpetuated, leading to underachievement and disaffection. The role of the family and home environment in stimulating children's language acquisition and pre-literacy competences during their earliest years is clearly important. It is possible that with appropriate exposure and encouragement before the age of 3, children from disadvantaged backgrounds could start school on an equal footing with their more privileged counterparts. We provide a conceptual overview of the factors in the home affecting language and subsequent literacy development in children aged 0-3, and a review of programs designed to enhance the home learning environment.

Global Literacy Engagement, a collaboration between the School of Education at Buffalo State College and its school and community partners, has grown in new and exciting ways since its inception in 2010. With an overarching mission to promote literacy and global awareness, Global Literacy Engagement has served as a unique platform to bring together all Professional Development Schools (PDS) stakeholders: teacher candidates, faculty, children, families, teachers, and school and community partners. The goal of this article is to explain how Global Literacy Engagement has embraced a boundary-spanning role to include new PDS sites, locally and internationally, as well as in digital spaces, to meet changing needs. Specifically, in this article the authors describe the origins of the program, its development and expansion, and future plans that hold promise to move in new and important directions while building upon existing PDS structures and frameworks (National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2021).

Shared experiences through school-hosted events, such as family literacy events, can afford opportunities to support and extend academic learning while fostering positive home-school relationships. This article describes the importance of developing primary-grade students' literacy skills through a talent development lens and explains several ways to nurture students' literacy skills and recognize potential, gifts, and talents during family literacy events. This article features one of the activities from the family literacy events, Environmental Print Bingo, a modification of I-Spy and Bingo which uses rich and varied environmental print resources. A description of this activity, necessary resources, and implementation tips are provided. Options for differentiating this learning activity to provide more challenge for gifted learners are suggested. Throughout the article, the application of a pedagogy for early childhood gifted education and Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence as a framework are discussed; these approaches informed the design of all family literacy activities. A brief overview of nine additional family literacy event activities is also shared. Welcoming and involving families of English learners is an important consideration in many communities, and therefore, preparation tips and considerations for facilitators that will help maximize the participation of all families are included. Finally, reflections and helpful advice for implementing family literacy events in your school communities are presented, including advice for implementing online family literacy events. Ultimately, this article should help readers conceptualize, plan, and implement family literacy events in their school communities.

The "home literacy environment" (HLE) refers to the physical, interpersonal, and emotional/motivational factors in the home that have been found to be important for children's literacy development. In this paper, the emergence of HLE research, its conceptualizations, and the effects of HLE factors are reviewed with an emphasis on the relations between HLE and children's early literacy skills. Challenges faced by HLE researchers are also discussed with particular reference to three issues: privacy sensitivity, measure validity, and intervention fidelity. This paper also identifies directions for future research.

Educators and researchers consider vocabulary development foundational in young children's language and literacy learning and for academic achievement; adult-child shared book reading is potentially a rich site for word learning and concept development. In this article, we report on how an immigrant father and his four year old daughter, English Language Learners living in a community identified as "vulnerable", attended to words and their meanings in two shared reading sessions. Results indicate the father enacted a number of strategies including: verbal explanations; providing verbal explanations and pointing to the relevant illustration; referencing the child's previous experiences; and using demonstration and gesture. The findings challenge some of the assumptions about immigrant families and families living in "vulnerable" communities, as well as the role of fathers in young children's language and literacy development.

A variety of systemic inequities place young children from Appalachian communities in the United States at greater risk for poor academic outcomes than children in other parts of the country. Young children with disabilities are at increased risk for poor academic outcomes because of similar inequities and their need for more intensive learning opportunities. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between early literacy skills and home literacy environment of Appalachian preschool children with disabilities. We completed an online literacy screening tool with 57 children between 3 and 6 years of age who had an Individualized Education Program. Parents completed a questionnaire measuring home literacy environment (parenting beliefs and practices). Children's scores on the screening tool were not associated with parent reading beliefs but were associated with modeling writing and communication. Neither parent beliefs nor practices were predictive of children's literacy screening scores. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

After many educational reforms over the past 2 decades, South Africa is still 1 of the lowest performing countries in terms of literacy outcomes. Despite an increased access to early childhood education programmes, more than half of Grade R learners will enter Grade 1 without the required skills to master reading. Clearly, systemic interventions are not working. Against this background, a family literacy programme was launched with the aim to improve home-school partnerships, build capacity for teachers to work with parents and to provide parents with the information and support they need to strengthen literacy learning in the home. The study reported on here was based on the theoretical framework of Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory as well as Fullan's theory of action as a theory of change. An action research design and qualitative techniques of data collection were used for programme implementation, but the study was planned and evaluated against Fullan's theory of change. The Wordworks Home-School Partnerships programme was selected for implementation and a children's component was designed to accommodate the young children of participating families. A multicultural, independent primary school situated in Pretoria, South Africa, was selected through a combination of purposeful and convenience sampling. Data were gathered from parents, children and teacher-facilitators during parallel sessions using multiple techniques and were analysed according to qualitative principles. The article concludes with a critical engagement between the anticipated findings of the study and the literature on theories of educational change to indicate how family literacy programmes can bring about improved literacy outcomes.

Background: Reading interest plays an important role in predicting and regulating the literacy development of deaf children, but the family factors influencing their reading interest have not been previously explored. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of parents' education and home literacy environment (HLE) on reading interest of deaf children. Method: One hundred and thirty-two deaf children from Grades 1 to 6 aged 8-15 from China participated in our study. The parents of these children completed our survey of parents' education, HLE and children's reading interest. These variables were then processed and analysed by correlation, regression analyses and structural equation modelling. Results: HLE played a complete intermediary role in the regression relationship between parents' education and reading interest of deaf children, and this effect had no significant difference between genders. Conclusions: Parents' education has a positive and predictive effect on reading interest of deaf children, while creating a high-quality HLE may improve this effect.

Reading identities are the ways that a child constructs the self as a reader across contexts and time. This study examines the impact of language contexts on the reading identities of multilingual children. Participants were ten prekindergarten children participating in a Chinese-English family literacy programme with a parent or grandparent. Participants read Chinese and English language books across English, Chinese and multilingual contexts. Children's reading identities were examined across language contexts to explore the interplay between language contexts and reading identities. Findings describe convergences and differences in reading identities across contexts for Chinese, English and multilingual language use and Chinese and English texts, and provide insights into the ways that different language contexts for reading affect multilingual children's early reading identities. Multilingual contexts appear to provide key spaces for the development of reading identities, and English and Chinese contexts contribute to unique aspects of children's reading identities.

This study examined whether children's formal and informal home literacy (HLE) and home numeracy (HNE) environments at 3 years old demonstrated domain-specific, and cross-domain effects on children's academic performance at 5 and 9 years old. Participants were 7,110 children (49.4% male; 84.4% Irish), recruited between 2007 and 2008 in Ireland. Structural equation modeling revealed that only the informal HLE and HNE demonstrated both domain-specific and cross-domain positive effects on children's language and numeracy outcomes but not on socioemotional outcomes, at 5 and 9 years old. Effect sizes ranged from small ([beta] = 0.020) to moderate ([beta] = 0.209). These results suggest that even casual cognitively stimulating activities that do not directly focus on active teaching may benefit children's educational outcomes. Findings bear implications for cost-effective interventions with far-reaching, and enduring, effects across multiple child outcomes.

When school buildings closed suddenly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educators relied on families more than ever to mediate their children's learning. This yearlong case study details the narratives of 14 Black and Latinx families as they negotiated literacy practices with their teenage sons during remote schooling. This study finds that families bolstered their sons' literacies through dimensions of "family literacy care," a notion developed by the author to describe the material, emotional, embodied, and digital mentoring exchanged between caregivers and boys around literacy practices at home. Entangled in these narratives are the complex ways that families enacted their roles as caregivers and teachers during the pandemic, and in turn, how boys acquiesced to and resisted their parents' attempts at family literacy care. These findings texture and advance the field of family literacy scholarship to understand better the varied ways boys orient toward (and away from) texts in their family context.

Purpose: This study examines the extent to which the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) as measured by reading habits and resources, library use, and subscriptions or materials, as well as parental reading beliefs predict both language skills (i.e., vocabulary) at kindergarten and students' trajectories of growth from kindergarten (K) to grade 3 (G3). Method: The sample included 259 Spanish-English bilingual children and their parents living in Arizona. We measured HLE and parental reading beliefs with a questionnaire administered to parents during the kindergarten year. Children completed measures of English and bilingual Spanish-English vocabulary in grades K to G3. Results: Findings indicated that library use and reading habits and resources predicted skills at kindergarten, but not growth. Across all language outcomes, library use was the consistent factor associated with skills in kindergarten. Conclusion: Given that HLE was associated with variability in children's vocabulary skills at kindergarten but not with vocabulary growth, this suggests that timely HLE supports are essential. Supports around library use show promise, given their significant associations with vocabulary skills in Spanish-English bilingual children. [This paper was prepared by the Task Force of the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC) consisting of Gloria Yeomans-Maldonado (Convener), Carol Mesa, Ann A. O'Connell, and Laida Restrepo.]

This article discusses an innovative family literacy project that was implemented in a community setting. Male trios consisting of a male significant figure, a struggling reader in elementary school, and a pre-service teacher were created. The goal was (a) to develop the student's motivation to read by using a male reading role model and allowing the student to read what he truly enjoys in a non-school environment and (b) document reading practices as trios. To document the progression of four trios, we used a semi-directed interview, a focus group, and a logbook. The results of this multiple-case research study showed an improvement regarding the student's motivation to read in the context of male trios, different reading practices inside the trios, and a positive evolution in the relationship between the student and participating male relative.

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 development were found. The quality of implementation proved to be higher for high-SES and native Dutch (speaking) parents than for low-SES, ethnic-minority parents with other home languages. Parent SES, ethnic-minority status, and home language did not moderate the program effects on child language scores and the program failed to impact targeted parental attributes, namely, the home literacy environment and parent self-efficacy. Finally, children's development proved unrelated to implementation variables. Our results stress the importance of delivery for adequate implementation.

In this study, northern Canadian rural and Indigenous parents provided valuable information about the self-initiated writing that their two- through nine-year-old children do at home. In interview responses, participating parents told stories about the writing materials and spaces they make available to children for writing. They talked about how they support their children's writing: informally--by demonstrating that writing is important; and formally--through direct teaching of letter forms and sound-letter relationships. Parents provided examples of their children's self-initiated writing, which includes types of texts that are not usually valued in mainstream spaces such as school. They explained that the writing is usually for the purposes of expressing feelings and informing family members. Our study adds to the literature on family literacy practices by validating the knowledge and experiences that northern rural and Indigenous children bring to their formal schooling. Recommendations for teachers include initiating conversations with parents about the writing that their children do at home, finding spaces in the classroom schedule for children to present and talk about their self-initiated writing with the class, and providing specific information about how parents can support their children's writing. A "Tips for Parents" sheet is provided.

This collective case study employs both family literacy theory (Taylor, 1983) and funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) to examine the ways that Mexican American parents conceptualize and practice literacy in the home with their emergent bilingual elementary-aged children. "Emergent bilingual" is used to reference students who are gaining English as an additional linguistic repertoire (García, 2009). Drawing from questionnaires and interviews from a suburban Midwestern U.S. community, findings demonstrate how families position and mediate their languages and literacies within their homes and communities. Such findings illuminate how emergent bilingual families create distinct spaces to shape the identity and agency of their emergent bilingual children. Such findings are now incorporated into English Language Learner and bilingual teacher preparation courses so teachers can identify, describe, and understand the multifaceted literacy capacities of their emergent bilingual families.