Literacy

Talking to Children: Why Some Mothers Do It More

UNC FPG Child Development Institute

Noel and Mom 6 monthsHow a mother cares for her baby may determine her child’s future vocabulary and language abilities, regardless of a family’s economic status.  Research shows that from a very young age, children are influenced by the way their mother’s verbally interact with them.

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Environmental Print Awareness in Young Children

Environmental Print Awareness

Danielle Z. Kassow, Ph.D.

Print is omnipresent in literate societies. Young children begin taking notice of and interacting with print in their environment and are able to identify or “read” the familiar print around them beginning at an early age. Questions pertaining to whether or not children are actually reading when they “read” environmental print were the focus of this research summary.

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Parent-Child Shared Book Reading: Quality versus Quantity of Reading Interactions between Parents and Young Children

Danielle Z. Kassow, Ph.D

Madeline and Mom readingThe home literacy environment has an important role in young children’s emerging literacy and social-emotional development. An emphasis has been placed on storybook reading at home. However, it has been unclear how often (quantity) storybook reading should occur or how parents should interact (quality) with a young child while reading together. Results reveal the role that both characteristics (quantity and quality) play in young children’s (emerging) literacy development and the parent-child relationship.

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