How Does Toddlers’ Engagement in Literacy Activities Influence Their Language Abilities?

Abstract

The most intensive period of language development is during the first years of life, during which the brain is developing rapidly. Research has shown that children from disadvantaged households who received high-quality stimulation at a young age grew into adults who earned an average of 25% more than those who did not receive these interventions. In addition, it has been suggested that children who show a greater interest in literacy-related activities and voluntarily engage in them are likely to become better readers than children with less interest in literacy. These children’s factors, along with their engagement in literacy activities, are important components in children’s early literacy experiences and may affect their early language development. In this study, we examined associations among maternal education, home literacy environment (HLE), children’s interest and engagement in literacy activities, and language development of 44 toddlers aged between 20 and 36 months. Overall, results showed that only children’s engagement in literacy activities was related to vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills, whereas maternal education, HLE, and children’s interests were not. These results suggest that taking advantage of individual children’s interests by planning activities in which children are fully engaged, may be effective strategies for promoting children’s oral language development.

Early language outcomes in Argentinean toddlers: Associations with home literacy, screen exposure and joint media engagement

“…Altogether, the literature indicates that the complexity of toddlers' utterances increases with their lexicon size (for a detailed discussion of the inter‐relatedness of lexicon and grammar throughout development, see Pérez‐Leroux et al, 2012). In addition, a recent study showed that HLE effects on toddlers' morphosyntax skills were mediated by their expressive vocabulary (DiCataldo & Roch, 2000). We addressed this possibility by examining potential mediation effects of LD over literacy beliefs associations with SU scores.…”

Families, Language, and Equal Opportunities: Identifying Good Practices in Family Literacy Projects

“…Finally, the HLE also has a bearing on the child's language and literacy development, particularly the availability of picture books (Burris et al, 2019) and children's reading material, and the activities undertaken by family members at home related to literacy learning (Dicataldo & Roch, 2022;Snow et al, 1998). The age at which children first have any contact with reading material is also thought to be important (Sénéchal, 2012;Storch & Whitehurst, 2002): early years reading has been found to encourage vocabulary gains that led to greater levels of reading and increased growth in word knowledge (Frumkin, 2013).…”

“…Finally, beyond the world of books and the written word, the HLE also influences children's language development and oracy skills (Burgess et al, 2002). A rich and supportive home environment encourages more rapid and accurate acquisition of new words, greater phonological awareness, and a stronger understanding of the communicative potential of language (Dicataldo & Roch, 2022). Increased responsiveness from parents also proves beneficial for children's language learning (Landry et al, 2017), and the number of interactions children engage in with more knowledgeable caretakers has been found to be a central variable in language development (Romeo et al, 2018).…”

“…Yet "the home learning environment is not predetermined; rather, it could be fostered" (Frumkin, 2013, p. 3). Dicataldo and Roch (2022), for example, propose that parents should be taught to shift from passive "reading aloud" to "dialogic reading" that involves the child by turning shared reading into a conversation, using various strategies to prompt responses, and encouraging the child to contribute progressively more. Anders et al (2019) claims that families can be empowered if they are supported to use appropriate strategies to boost children's language.…”

“…Research over the last fifty years has supported the view that the linguistic interaction at early stages in children's lives-usually within the family-is extremely important for their language development (Gilkerson et al, 2018;Hart & Risley, 1995, attitudes towards the spoken and written word (Brice-Heath, 1982) and future literacy (Dodici et al, 2003). The language interaction and literacy practices learned in the home help children not only to build a sound language base, but also to acquire more advanced literacy skills once they start school (Clark, 1976;Dicataldo & Roch, 2022;Mui & Anderson, 2008;Snow, 2014). In particular, children who are socialized into participating in rich, frequent, and diverse activities involving oral discourse as well as printed text within the home environment generally have an advantage in the early stages of education, which in turn has been found to favor their later school performance.…”