Exploring a refined model of home literacy activities and associations with children’s emergent literacy skills

Abstract

Based on the Home Literacy Model, this study explored a refined model of home literacy activities and their relations with children’s emergent literacy skills in a linguistic and socio-economic diverse sample of 214 Dutch kindergartners (mean age 4 years and 7 months, 46% girls and 29% monolingual speakers of Dutch). The study examined a typology of home literacy activities that explicitly addressed didactic approach and was not restricted to activities involving print. Next, the study explored the relations between activity types and children’s emergent literacy skills. Three activity categories were identified: code, oral language exposure and oral language teaching activities. Results of multilevel structural equation modeling showed that all types of home literacy activities were related to children’s oral language skills, although the association between oral language teaching and oral language skills was negative. Oral language skills were associated with children’s code and phonological skills. The outcomes indicate the existence of a more nuanced pattern of interrelations between elements of the home literacy environment and children’s literacy skills in this diverse sample than observed before.