Laura M. Justice

Using Shared Storybook Reading To Promote Emergent Literacy.

your phonological awareness? How does your alphabet knowledge differ from your metalinguistic awareness? If you are reading this article yourself, you know the answers to these questions (at least intuitively). And believe it or not, most 7-year-old children who are successful readers know the answers to these questions, too—if only subconsciously. Such awareness and knowledge came to them as their parents and caregivers cuddled them on their laps and read to them. We now use the term emergent literacy to define these skills and concepts (see box, “What Is Emergent Literacy?”); and special educators and other professionals—and parents—are urgently pursuing techniques for improving the reading skills of young children with disabilities (see box, “What Does the Literature Say?”). This article describes several techniques for structuring shared storybook reading interactions to best promote emergent literacy development for young children with disabilities. We present techniques for increasing the appeal and interactive nature of shared storybook reading and ways to promote children’s awareness of the literacy conventions naturally occurring within the shared storybook reading context. Increasing the Appeal and Interactive Nature of Storybook Reading When using storybook reading to promote emergent literacy knowledge in young children, we must ensure that children find the activity appealing and are highly engaged and actively involved in the book-reading experience. Some children, including a substantial proportion of children with disabilities, do not enjoy participating in bookreading activities (Kaderavek & Sulzby, 1998a). This occurs for several reasons, as follows: • Shared storybook reading is a language-based activity. For children exhibiting impaired language skills,

Electronic versus Traditional Storybooks: Relative Influence on Preschool Children's Engagement and Communication.

The purpose of this study was to examine children’s reading engagement and communicative initiations when they were read storybooks in varying media and reading manners, with a focus on understanding the way electronic storybooks (e-storybooks) may affect young children’s shared reading experiences. The reading behaviors of 25 preschool-aged children were observed during three storybook reading conditions: adult led e-storybook, child led e-storybook, and adult led traditional storybook. Children’s level of reading engagement and type and quantity of communicative initiations were analyzed. Findings showed that when comparing media, children displayed higher levels of persistence during the adult led e-storybook compared to the adult led traditional storybook condition. However, children produced more communicative initiations during the adult led traditional storybook condition. When comparing the reading manner between adult and child led e-storybook conditions, more labelling references were observed during the adult led condition. Results suggested that both media and manner matter.

Relations Among Maternal Literacy Beliefs, Home Literacy Practices, and the Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment

Self-reported maternal literacy beliefs and home literacy practices were compared for families of children with typicially developing language skills (TL, n = 52) and specific language impairment (SLI, n = 56). Additionally, the present work examined whether maternal beliefs and practices predicted childrens print-related knowledge. Mothers filled out 2 questionnaires asking about their literacy beliefs and practices while childrens print-related knowledge was assessed directly. Results indicated that mothers of children with SLI held somewhat less positive beliefs about literacy and reported engaging in fewer literacy practices compared to mothers of children with TL. For the entire sample, maternal literacy practices and beliefs predicted childrens print-related knowledge, although much of this association was accounted for by maternal education. Subgroup analyses focused specifically on children with SLI showed there to be no relation between maternal literacy beliefs and practices and childrens print-related knowledge. The present findings suggest that the home literacy experiences of children with SLI, and the way that these experiences impact print-related knowledge, may differ in important ways from typical peers.

Relationships Between Teachers and Preschoolers Who Are At Risk: Contribution of Children's Language Skills, Temperamentally Based Attributes, and Gender

Research Findings: The teacher–child relationship can provide an important support to young children who exhibit developmental risk. This research studied the contribution of childrens language skills, temperamentally based attributes (shyness, anger), and gender to closeness and conflict in the teacher–child relationship for 133 preschoolers attending programs serving at-risk children. The results showed that both language comprehension (positive predictor) and shyness (negative predictor) were significantly linked to closeness in the teacher–child relationship. An additional result was that children who displayed greater anger within the classroom had relationships with their teachers characterized by higher levels of conflict, and both gender and language expression served as moderators for the relationship between anger and teacher–child conflict. Practice or Policy: These findings are important for considering how various skills and attributes of preschool children may contribute to their formation of trusting and secure relationships with their classroom teachers.

School readiness among children with varying histories of language difficulties.

This study tested the hypotheses that (a) persistent language difficulties during childhood would predict lower school readiness and (b) language difficulties present just prior to school entry would predict lower school readiness beyond any effects of persistence. The study involved examining indicators of school readiness collected at kindergarten for children exhibiting various histories of language ability based on language measures collected at 15, 24, 36, and 54 months by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Developments Early Child Care Research Network. Children (N = 1,064) were classified according to whether they exhibited expressive or receptive language difficulties at each time point measured. The relation between persistence and timing of these difficulties to each kindergarten outcome was studied through a common factor approach for categorical outcomes. Persistence of language difficulties was not generally related to kindergarten outcomes. However, a robust effect was found for timing of language difficulties: Children who exhibited language difficulties at 54 months exhibited significantly depressed performance on measures of school readiness. Findings are discussed in terms of current policy and research concerning kindergarten readiness for children exhibiting risk.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Gestural and Linguistic Abilities in Very Preterm Infants in the Second Year of Life.

The present study involved a systematic longitudinal analysis, with three points of assessment in the second year of life, of gestures/actions, word comprehension, and word production in a sample of very preterm infants compared to a sample of full-term infants. The relationships among these competencies as well as their predictive value on language development at 24 months and the contribution of biological, medical and social risk factors on language delay at 24 months were also analysed. One hundred and four monolingual Italian very preterms (mean gestational age 29.5 weeks) without major cerebral damages, and a comparison group of 20 monolingual healthy Italian full-terms were followed at 12, 18 and 24 months by administering to their parents the Italian short forms of the MacArthur-Bates CDI. Preterms showed a slower acquisition in gesture/action production, word comprehension, and word production with an increasing divergence with respect to full-terms from 12 to 24 months, when 20% of preterms were delayed in word production (<10th percentile) and 14% did not combine words yet. Lexical competencies at 12 months and together with gestures/actions at 18 months were predictive of word production at 24 months, with a stronger contribution of word comprehension at 12 months and of word production at 18 months. Male gender, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and low maternal educational level increased the risk of language delay at 24 months. Our findings suggest there to be a slower rate of communicative-linguistic development in very preterms with an increasing difference in their gestural and lexical competencies in the second year of life with respect to full-terms. The interplay of the above competencies and biological, medical and social risk factors increase the risk of language delay at 24 months in very preterm infants.

Predicting Individual Differences in Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study.

We examined the Simple View of reading from a behavioral genetic perspective. Two aspects of word decoding (phonological decoding and word recognition), two aspects of oral language skill (listening comprehension and vocabulary), and reading comprehension were assessed in a twin sample at age 9. Using latent factor models, we found that overlap among phonological decoding, word recognition, listening comprehension, vocabulary, and reading comprehension was primarily due to genetic influences. Shared environmental influences accounted for associations among word recognition, listening comprehension, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Independent of phonological decoding and word recognition, there was a separate genetic link between listening comprehension, vocabulary, and reading comprehension and a specific shared environmental link between vocabulary and reading comprehension. There were no residual genetic or environmental influences on reading comprehension. The findings provide evidence for a genetic basis to the “Simple View” of reading.

Genetic and environmental influences on the growth of early reading skills

BACKGROUND Studies have suggested genetic and environmental influences on overall level of early reading whereas the larger reading literature has shown environmental influences on the rate of growth of early reading skills. This study is the first to examine the genetic and environmental influences on both initial level of performance and rate of subsequent growth in early reading. METHODS Participants were drawn from the Western Reserve Reading Project, a study of 314 twin pairs based in Ohio. Twins were assessed via three annual home visits during early elementary school. Assessments included word identification, letter identification, pseudoword decoding, expressive vocabulary, phoneme awareness, and rapid naming. Measures were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling. RESULTS The heritability of initial performance (latent intercept) ranged from h(2) = .38 for word identification to h(2) = .72 for rapid naming. Shared environment ranged from c(2) = .11 for rapid naming to c(2) = .62 for word identification. The heritability of the rate of subsequent growth (latent slope) was statistically significant for rapid naming h(2) = .58 and phoneme awareness h(2) = .20. Shared environment accounted for nearly 100% of variance in rate of growth for word identification, letter identification and pseudoword decoding, and was statistically significant and large for phoneme awareness (c(2) = .80). Genetic variance for rapid naming and phoneme awareness latent slopes overlapped entirely with genetic variance on the intercepts. In contrast, one-third to two-thirds of the shared environmental variance on the slope was independent from the shared environmental variance on the intercept. CONCLUSIONS Genetic influences were related primarily to those already present at the initial level of performance. In contrast, shared environmental influences affecting rate of growth were both predicted by and independent from initial levels of performance. Results suggested that growth in early reading skills is amenable to family, school, or other environmental influences as reading skills develop.

The Dimensionality of Language Ability in Young Children

The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the dimensionality of language ability for young children (4-8 years) from prekindergarten to third grade (n = 915), theorizing that measures of vocabulary and grammar ability will represent a unitary trait across these ages, and to determine whether discourse skills represent an additional source of variance in language ability. Results demonstrated emergent dimensionality of language across development with distinct factors of vocabulary, grammar, and discourse skills by third grade, confirming that discourse skills are an important source of variance in childrens language ability and represent an important additional dimension to be accounted for in studying growth in language skills over the course of childhood.

Language, motor and cognitive development of extremely preterm children: Modeling individual growth trajectories over the first three years of life

UNLABELLED Survival rate of extremely low gestational age (ELGA) newborns has increased over 80% in the last 15 years, but its consequences on the short- and longer-term developmental competencies may be severe. The aim of this study was to describe growth trajectories of linguistic, motor and cognitive skills among ELGA children, compared to full-term (FT) peers, from the first to the third year of life, a crucial period for development. Growth curve analysis was used to examine individual and group differences in terms of initial status at 12 months and rate of growth through the second and the third year of life with five points of assessment. Twenty-eight monolingual Italian children, of whom 17 were ELGA (mean GA 25.7 weeks) and 11 were FT children, were assessed through the BSID-III at 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months for language skills and at 12, 24 and 30 months for motor and cognitive skills. ELGA children presented significantly lower scores than FT peers in language, motor and cognitive skills and they did not overcome their disadvantage by 3 years, even if their corrected age was taken into account. Concerning growth curves, in motor development a significant increasing divergence was found showing a Matthew effect with the preterm sample falling further behind the FT sample. In linguistic and cognitive development, instead, a stable gap between the two samples was found. In addition, great inter-individual differences in rate of change were observed for language development in both samples. Our findings highlight the theoretical and clinical relevance of analyzing, through growth curve analyses, the developmental trajectories of ELGA children in language skills taking into account their inter-individual variability also across motor and cognitive domains. LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this article, the reader will interpret: (a) characteristics and growth trajectories of ELGA children from the first to the third year of life with respect to FT children in language, motor and cognitive development; (b) the method of growth curve analyses to describe group as well as inter-individual trajectories; (c) the rate of inter-individual variability in language as well as motor and cognitive skills, which gives useful indications for early interventions.