The purpose of this study was to identify malleable practices in the homes of Spanish-speaking toddlers prior to school enrollment. This was achieved by examining daily activities and routines and the role older siblings played in these interactions to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the home language and literacy environment and…

Learning to read is an important milestone in children's development. Factors in the home environment is been linked to the behavioral and neural correlates of reading, but further work is needed to unpack the underlying mechanisms. The home literacy environment (HLE) plays a role in children's reading and language development, while parental…

Culturally Relevant Pedagogical (CRP; Ladson-Billings, 1995) and textual strategic approaches to reading development are gaining acceptance and broader usage among students of all ages and walks of life. With this shift, quantitative measures of efficacy can confirm, bolster, and source new policies and strategies for implementation in new and…

The development of emergent literacy, a precursor to formal reading, has been linked to subsequent conventional literacy skills in Chinese children. The factors important for acquiring Chinese reading skills, such as phonological and morphological awareness, have primarily been studied in primary school children rather than preschoolers. The…

This qualitative case study examined urban teachers' perceptions and experiences of family literacy practices and partnerships in urban schools, homes, and communities during remote learning. Research shows that collaboration among schools, families, and communities can help improve overall educational outcomes and literacy development of children…

Public schools teachers in the U.S. strive to reach the needs of all students in the elementary classroom. However, teachers are increasingly expected to follow standardized curriculum. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris, 2012) pushes toward individualized educational practices and against the assimilationism embedded in standardization. This…

This study sought to determine whether a book provision intervention delivered to low-income mothers participating in the Nurse-Family Partnership had an effect on family shared book reading patterns and family attitudes toward shared book reading. The 25 participants in this study were low-income, first-time mothers, aged 18-25 with infants,…

This dissertation study explores the perceptions of principals as literacy leaders and the enactment of these perceptions in high-need elementary schools. Literacy leadership, as perceived by principals, was analyzed based on interview data from six participants. Individual cases were studied for the unique characterizations each participant…

Parents play a crucial role in shaping children's emergent literacy through shared book reading. Shared book reading can foster literacy acquisition, promote vocabulary development, and improve print awareness, phonological awareness, and story comprehension (e.g., Bus et al., 1995; De Temple & Snow, 2003; Mol et al., 2008; Snow et al., 1998).…

This dissertation portfolio is comprised of three first-authored pieces of writing that investigate the oral language and emergent literacy development of Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Each piece features a unique but complementary aim. The first study investigates group differences on a battery of emergent…

The purpose of this study was to understand the reasons, as perceived by elementary school teachers at the target Title I school, for low student achievement in reading. The conceptual framework that guided this study was the ecological theory that postulates that students' academic achievement is influenced by several subsystems that affect human…

There were two purposes of this descriptive research design. The first purpose of the study was to investigate family literacy activities with preschool-aged children and parental expectations of their children's development and future school success as reported by Asian immigrant families. The second purpose was to observe the interactive reading…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between family literacy practices and children's early literacy development. Drawing from a developmental-ecological framework, this study modified existing surveys (e.g., Family Involvement Questionnaire, a.k.a. FIQ, by Fantuzzo, Tighe, & Childs, 2000) to develop the "Family…

The purpose of this six-month qualitative microethnographic case study was to determine what influence a family literacy program based on positive mother-child verbal interactions would have on the participating adolescent mothers' literacy skills. The design of the program was founded on the Hart and Risley study (1995) and their findings…

This study presents the results of a fifteen-month research project conducted with a group of Latina (Mexicana) immigrant mothers who took part in an after-school family literacy program that was grounded in a participatory approach to education. This family literacy program emphasized a "strengths" perspective by acknowledging the rich resources…