Disciplinary literacy is defined here as the ability to engage in social, semiotic, and cognitive practices consistent with those of content experts. Characterizing literacy development as a process of braiding 3 language strands of everyday language, abstract language, and metaphoric language, this article describes the lexical and grammatical…

The conversational timing patterns of three year old children who were at a high familial risk for dyslexia were examined in the course of their interaction with adults. Findings indicated that previously documented differences in speech timing surface as subtle differences in spontaneous child-adult conversation as early as three years of age.