This study investigated relationships between preschoolers’ oral discourse and their later skill at reading and writing. Thirty-two children participated in narrative and expository oral language tasks at age 5 years and reading comprehension and writing assessments at age 8 years. Children’s ability to mark the significance of narrated events through the use of evaluation at age 5 predicted reading comprehension skills at age 8. Children’s ability to represent informational content in expository talk at age 5 also predicted reading comprehension at age 8. Control of discourse macrostructures in both narrative and expository talk at age 5 was associated with written narrative skill at age 8. These findings point to a complex and differentiated role for oral language in supporting early literacy.

S This study explored the congruence in reading and teaching patterns of low‐income, young African American mothers while interacting with their preschool‐age children in their homes (N=126). Survey and standardized test data were collected on maternal education and language ability, and videotape data were collected, transcribed, and coded on shared book‐reading and puzzle‐solving sessions, using validated coding procedures. Two reading patterns (Story‐Readers and Story‐Tellers) and three teaching patterns (Low Support and Low Teaching; Support and Low Teaching; and Support and Teaching) were identified based on maternal verbal and nonverbal interactions during these sessions. Children whose mothers were identified as Story‐Tellers and the Support and Teaching group of mothers had better language skills than children whose mothers were not in these groups, controlling for maternal education and verbal skills. Este estudio exploró la congruencia entre los patrones de lectura y enseñanza en jóvenes madres afro‐americanas de bajos recursos durante la interacción, en el hogar, con sus hijos en edad preescolar (N=126). Se recolectaron datos sobre la educación y habilidad lingüística de las madres mediante informes y tests estandarizados. Se recogieron datos videograbados que se transcribieron y codificaron en sesiones de lecturas compartidas y resolución de problemas, usando procedimientos de codificación validados. Dos patrones de lectura (Lectoras de Cuentos y Narradoras de Cuentos) y tres patrones de enseñanza (Poco Apoyo y Poca Enseñanza, Apoyo y Poca Enseñanza y Apoyo y Enseñanza) se identificaron sobre la base de las interacciones verbales y no verbales de las madres durante estas sesiones. Los niños cuyas madres fueron identificadas como Narradoras de Cuentos y pertenecientes al grupo de Apoyo y Enseñanza mostraron mejores habilidades lingüísticas que los niños cuyas madres no pertenecían a estos grupos, aun controlando la educación y habilidades lingüísticas de las madres. Diese Studie untersuchte die Übereinstimmung in Lese‐ und Unterrichtsmustern von jungen afro‐amerikanischen Müttern mit niedrigem Einkommen im Umgang mit ihren vorschulaltrigen Kindern zu Hause (N=126). Die Untersuchungsergebnisse und vereinheitlichten Testdaten wurden über die mütterliche Ausbildung und deren Sprachtalent gesammelt; Video‐Kassettendaten wurden gesammelt, übertragen und kodiert bezüglich dem gemeinsamen Bücherlesen und der Zusammenkünfte zum Lösen von Problemen unter Anwendung festgelegter Kodierungsverfahren. Zwei Lesemodelle (von Geschichten‐Lesern und Geschichten‐Erzählern) und drei Unterrichtsmuster (mit wenig Unterstützung und geringfügigem Unterricht; mit Unterstützung und bei geringem Unterricht; und mit Unterstützung und Vollunterricht) wurden festgelegt, basierend auf die mütterlichen mündlichen und nicht‐mündlichen Beeinflussungen während dieser Treffen. Kinder, deren Mütter als Geschichtenerzähler erkannt wurden und solche aus der Unterstützungs‐ und Unterrichtsgruppierung von Müttern hatten bessere Sprac...

In this article, we examine differences across three racial/ethnic groups in (a) the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood HOME Inventory and the HOME-Short Form and (b) the prediction of the two versions of the HOME Inventory to cognitive and behavioral outcomes among preschool children. Data are taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement (NLSY-CS) and the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP) sample. Findings suggest few racial/ethnic differences in the psychometric properties of either version of the HOME scale. Both show better prediction of cognitive child outcomes for all three racial/ethnic groups. Both show better prediction of child outcomes generally for European American than for Hispanic and African American families. Findings suggest that although certain aspects of parenting are common, these dimensions of parenting are not equally important in explaining child outcomes for different racial/ethnic subgroups.

No abstract

A contras~ive ana~ys~s o~t e a c~e r -~t~e n t and pew c o~l~o~~t i o n s reveals diverse approaches to writing. Results ofthis study suggest that children draw on social and affective resources to support cognitive and linguistic aspects ofwritten language development. Maureen Ready, Terrence TivnanThis chapter outlines theoretical issues in the social construction of literacy, focusing on the role of expertise, talk, and activity. We contrast children's interactions with a teacher, who models expert literacy strategies, and interactions among young peers, whose spontaneous strategies differ from those of the teacher but are nonetheless effective as instructional supports, especially for some children. Our study illustrates how children's active engagement with peers around written texts can be more important for certain aspects of literacy development than access to an expert. These results suggest that literacy development is a complex process, involving social and affective factors as well as cognitive factors like expert planning strategies and knowledge. Teachers and other experts can instruct children on culturally privileged features of literacy, but children must have opportunities to integrate these features into their own diverse, spontaneous oral and written genres. Children's effective manipulation of text forms appears to be centered on meaning making, personal connections, and social contexts, as well as on the cognitive and linguistic processes that have dominated research and practice. Role of Social Interaction in Literacy DevelopmentIn recent years, there has been emphasis on understanding the role of social interaction in the development of literacy and other problem-solving domains, but individual researchers have construed social interaction in diverse ways, as evidenced in the chapters in this book. Some theorists and educators emphasize the value of expert collaborators guiding children to do more complex problem solving than they would engage in on their own (Collins, Brown, and Newman, 1989). Other researchers emphasize the dialogic nature of thought in the context of social interaction and children's active engagement when working with peers (Daiute and Dalton, 1993;Dyson, 1989;Nystrand and Gamoran, 1991; Nystrand, Greene, and Wiemelt, in press). In this chapter, we focus on the contrast between social reproduction as characterized in a teacher's modeling of expert composing strategies and social construction as characterized by collaboration among young novice writers in an urban setting. Such a contrast offers insights about relationships between social formations of mind and other factors within individuals, like developmental and affective factors, which typically have not been integrated into cognitive developmental or social interactionist theories.Expertise. One of Vygotsky's major contributions to educational research has been the concept of "zone of proximal development," which is the distance between a child's actual level of development as assessed when working individuall...