Home Literacy Environment and Preschoolers With Disabilities

Introduction to Home Literacy Environment Research

Carlson, Bitterman, and Jenkins (2012) were interested in the effects of the home literacy environment on a sample of preschool children with disabilities. Home literacy environment refers to a number of conditions that foster the development of reading and writing skills in children. Carlson et al. (2012) reviewed previous research findings and determined that the frequency with which parents read to their children — commonly called joint reading — has dominated this area of research. This body of work generally finds that a significant amount of the variance in reading achievement, literacy, and language abilities can be attributed to joint reading experiences with toddlers and preschoolers.

Carlson et al. (2012) discuss two major categories of home literacy experiences: formal literacy experiences (activities in which parents actively teach children to read and write) and informal literacy experiences (such as joint reading or sharing storybooks with a focus on the story rather than on reading skills per se). Research has generally found that informal literacy experiences explain a significant amount of variance in areas such as receptive language and vocabulary, whereas formal literacy experiences explain significant amounts of variance in domains like decoding skills and letter knowledge. As children grow older, parental involvement has a more limited but still meaningful influence on the child's developing reading skills.

Formal and Informal Literacy Experiences

Carlson et al. (2012) note that research on home literacy environments for children with disabilities has been limited by small samples, low-incidence disability populations, and other methodological flaws. Their review suggests that less positive beliefs about literacy in children with disabilities may reduce parental involvement. Because the home literacy environment for preschoolers with disabilities may differ in both its effects and its potential, the researchers emphasized the need for dedicated research on this population.

While the theoretical foundation is clearly described and adequately defines the variables and relationships among them for typically developing children, there is little development regarding the types of disabilities that home literacy environments may affect. The researchers use the word "disabilities" to encompass a broad range of potential conditions, yet home literacy environments most likely have differential effects depending on the specific disability — for example, developmental delays, deafness, or visual impairment — and not only on the severity of the disability. The researchers might have investigated the literature on specific disability types and developed more targeted hypotheses accordingly. For a broad overview of how special education addresses diverse learner needs, the theoretical gaps here become even more apparent.

Theoretical Foundation and Disability Considerations

There are three research questions in this study: (1) How do home literacy activities and scores on a home literacy scale vary by demographic variables such as age, parental education, race, and severity of disability? (2) Does the home literacy environment predict vocabulary and reading comprehension among these children? (3) Do the predictive relationships between home literacy environment and vocabulary and reading comprehension differ for children with disabilities based on the severity of their disability?

Given the researchers' earlier literature review, these three research questions are appropriate and relevant to warrant further study. However, the first research question — examining whether formal and informal literacy activities, as measured by both continuous variables and a categorical dependent variable based on five home literacy variables, vary by numerous demographic variables treated as independent measures — involves so many statistical analyses that the potential for Type I error is quite high.