The concept of emergent literacy presents the view that from the time they are born, young children develop their knowledge about language and literacy through their sociocultural interactions with others. Emergent literacy encompasses knowledge about the alphabet, letter sounds, words, and language, and such skills are predictive of future…

Due to recent advances in technology, social robots are emerging as educational tools with the potential to enhance early language and literacy skills in young children. Social robots are defined as machines that can socially interact and communicate intelligently with humans. A review of the literature was conducted to explore current knowledge…

Mothers play a key role in scaffolding children's writing using traditional tools, such as paper and pencil. However, little is known about how mothers scaffold young children's writing using touch-screen tablets (e.g., iPads) and the associations between maternal scaffolding and emergent literacy. Mother-child dyads (N = 47; M child…

Family socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy practices impact upon children's early literacy development. The present study explored where current emergent literacy and home literacy differences lie in Australian preschoolers aged three to five years from lower SES (n = 49) and higher SES (n = 52) homes. Children were assessed on letter…