Effect of home literacy environment on Chinese preschoolers differs with age: study

BEIJING -- A recent study showed that the influence of the home literacy environment on Chinese children's word reading skills varies significantly with age.

Reading resources at home and reading-writing activities carried out by parents with kids constitute the home literacy environment, which is essential for children's reading development.

An early home literacy environment is crucial for the later reading development of children, according to the research article published in Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

Researchers from the Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, investigated the effects of the home literacy environment on Chinese vocabulary reading of children aged between three and six years old.

Besides, children's interest in literacy -- which is important for reading development and interacts with the home literacy environment -- was also assessed by the researchers.

The study recruited 223 children and tested their Chinese reading ability by allowing them to recognize Chinese words. Meanwhile, their parents were asked to fill in a questionnaire about the number of books at home, parents' reading habits, parents' participation in children's reading activities and children's interest in words.

The results showed that the home literacy environment changed significantly with the age of the children.

Specifically, parents' reading instruction and children's interest in print played unique roles in the Chinese word reading of four-year-old children. Moreover, home reading resources independently contributed to the word reading skills of kids aged six.