Mother–child joint writing in an environmental print setting: relations with emergent literacy

Abstract

Mother -child dyads (N ¼ 35) were videoed as they wrote a shopping list in an environmental print-rich grocery shop play setting. The children (M age ¼ 4.3 years) were assessed on emergent literacy skills (letter name and sound knowledge, print concepts, phonological awareness, and letter and name writing). Mothers' general level of print and grapho-phonemic mediation during the joint-writing task was scored. After controlling for child age, maternal print and grapho-phonemic mediation of children's writing were both positively related to letter sound knowledge. Grapho-phonemic mediation was positively related to print concepts. A particular focus of this study was to investigate mothers' natural use of surrounding environmental print to scaffold writing. Only four mothers used environmental print to scaffold their child's writing. These mothers applied a variety of strategies including pointing out letters, describing letter shapes, and encouraging copying of letters and words from product labels and signs. There were no obvious differences between those who did or did not use environmental print in demographic factors, emergent literacy skills, or maternal mediation during joint writing. Despite there being only a small number of mothers who used environmental print, the range of strategies observed highlights the need for further research into using environmental print to scaffold children's emergent writing.

Model Multisensori: Solusi Stimulasi Literasi Anak Prasekolah

“…Selain itu semua bentuk tulisan yang ada di sekitar rumah dapat dijadikan media seperti logo, label, nama jalan, dan nama toko (Neumann, Hood, & Ford, 2012;2013). Media ini dimanfaatkan dalam aktivitas anak di rumah saat bermain, berinteraksi, dan melakukan kegiatan rutin sehari-hari bersama orangtua atau orang dewasa lainnya.…”

“…Bahkan membaca buku secara interaktif menurut DeBruin-Parecki (2009) merupakan hal penting dalam pengembangan kemampuan literasi anak prasekolah. Lingkungan sekitar juga menyediakan tulisan yang dapat difungsikan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan literasi anak prasekolah (Neumann, Hood, & Ford, 2012;dan Neumann, Hood, & Ford, 2013).…”

Parental writing support and preschoolers’ early literacy, language, and fine motor skills

“…Because English is a deep orthography in which rules of sound-symbol correspondence are frequently irregular, parental support and guidance might be different from that observed using other orthographies. When parents have been observed to engage in joint writing with their children in English, they do not always promote letter-sound correspondence, and instead sometimes choose to dictate letters to their children (Burns & Casbergue, 1992) or encourage them to copy letters from their surroundings (Neumann, Hood, & Ford, 2012). The current study investigates what types of writing support English-speaking parents use with their preschool children and whether the levels of writing support used are related to children's vocabulary, decoding, and fine motor skills.…”

Longitudinal Relations Between Parental Writing Support and Preschoolers' Language and Literacy Skills

“…Parents also have been observed dictating letters to children as they write a letter or writing children's ideas down for them (Burns & Casbergue, ). Other parents have encouraged children to copy letters or words from their environment (Neumann, Hood, & Ford, ). In general, the existing evidence suggests that similar to other types of literacy activities (Reese & Cox, ; Skibbe, Justice, & Bowles, ), parents differ in the types, amount, and quality of writing assistance they provide.…”