Not just storybook reading: Exploring the relationship between home literacy environment and literate cultural capital among 5-year-old children as they start school

Home literacy environment (HLE) is an umbrella term to describe a wide range of home activities and experiences that promote literacy development. The present study explored whether there is a relationship between certain components of children's language and literacy knowledge at school entry and their home literacy environment conceptualised in three different ways: active (e.g., reading books to the child), child-led (e.g., playing educational games on a tablet or smartphone), and passive or parent-led (e.g., parents reading articles for themselves online). A sample of 35 five-year old children and their parents participated. Children completed assessments of four indicators of early language and literacy development: receptive vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and early word reading. Parents completed a questionnaire asking about their home literacy environment activities that were active, child-led, or passive. The results showed that active home literacy environment predicted receptive vocabulary, and vocabulary predicted the three measures of early literacy. Passive home literacy environment, that is, literacy behaviours of parents themselves such as reading books or articles online helped to predict children's phonological processing. It seems that oral language (facilitated by active home literacy environment activities and experiences) enables children to acquire phonological awareness, which in turn enables children to acquire letter-sound knowledge and early word reading.