The Home Literacy Environment and Reading Development of Children with and without Learning Disabilities

Home literacy environment (HLE) refers to children’s exposure to and engagement in reading related activities in the home. Although HLE is known to be related to successful early reading achievement in general, less is known about this relation for students with learning disabilities (LDs). We investigated the relation between HLE and reading achievement using a sample of 2,090 children from the ECLS-K:2011 dataset, half of whom were identified as students with LDs and half serving as controls. Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine growth in reading from kindergarten (age 5) through fifth grade (age 10). For both groups, growth was characterized by mastery learning with a negative correlation between intercept (i.e., performance at the first time point) and slope (rate of growth). Compared to controls, LD children had a lower mean intercept but a higher mean slope. HLE was positively related to intercept for both groups. However, the positive relation between HLE and reading did not extend to later grades, with a small but significant negative relation between HLE and slope for both groups. The pattern of results remained the same after controlling for socioeconomic status. It appears HLE is equally important to the reading achievement of both groups.