Effects of Home Literacy, Parents' Beliefs, and Children's Task-Focused Behavior on Emergent Literacy and Word Reading Skills

Abstract We examined the effects of home literacy (shared book reading, teaching activities, and number of books), children's task-focused behavior, and parents' beliefs and expectations about their child's reading and academic ability on kindergarten children's (N = 61) phonological sensitivity and letter knowledge and on Grade 1 word reading. The results showed that, after controlling for nonverbal IQ and vocabulary, home literacy instruction prior to kindergarten, parents' beliefs about their children's reading ability, and children's task-focused behavior were significant predictors of two or more of the dependent variables. Storybook reading did not account for unique variance in any of the dependent variables. Notes a1 = less than 10, 2 = 10–24, 3 = 25–99, 4 = 100–199, 5 = more than 200. b1 = less than 100, 2 = 100–299, 3 = 300–499, 4 = 500–1,000, 5 = more than 1,000. c0 = never, 1 = less than once a month, 2 = a few times a month, 3 = a few times a week, 4 = about once a day, 5 = more than once a day. d1 = not at all well, 5 = very well. e1 = very hard, 5 = very easy. f1 = very hard, 5 = not at all hard. *p < .05. **p < .01.