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…

This study examined interactions between preschool children and parents during shared book reading by analyzing parental self-report data. Using confirmatory factor analytic procedures and structural equation modeling, this study developed a scale measuring meaning-related and print-related reading interactions and examined their associations with…

This study examined relations between parenting, shared reading practices, and child development. Participants included 28 children (M = 24.66 months, SD = 8.41 months) and their parents. Measures included naturalistic observations of parenting and shared reading quality, assessments of child cognitive and language development, and home reading…

This study investigated the home literacy environments (HLEs) of 4-year-old children attending an early childhood program prior to school entry and the association between the HLE and children's interests in and attitudes to literacy. One hundred and thirty-eight parents and 140 children participated in the study. Parents completed a questionnaire…

This study reports the construction of the Dialogic Reading Inventory (DRI), a tool for assessing a parent and child's storybook reading behaviors. Twenty-three parent-child dyads participated in the study. The Adult-Child Interactive Reading Inventory (DeBruin-Parecki, 1999) items were grouped into four categories and revised to reflect current…

This issue highlights seven distinct studies. The first study examines the perceptions of early childhood educators and elementary educators concerning their beliefs about young children and how those beliefs translate to practice. The second explores joint book reading among parents and very young children. The third investigates the importance…

Videotaped 14 mother-infant dyads during book sharing to examine categories of information mothers provided when talking about the book. Found a substantial amount of discussion about the books. Mothers modeled information structures of varying levels of cognitive demand, most frequently modeling the simplest of labeling pictures, with decreasing…

Offers brief commentary on the studies included in this issue. Maintains that the four articles on children's home and school language is important professional literature for anyone who deals with reading and language. (BB)

Compared family stimulation related to literacy provided to five- to seven-year-olds with intellectual deficits and without intellectual deficits. Found that, compared to children without intellectual deficits, children with intellectual deficits had fewer books available, parents began reading to them later in life, and read to them less…