Background: This paper investigates multiple antecedents of literacy in children, such as demographics, child reading behaviour, parent reading behaviour and family context. Methods: The study included a Romanian sample of 924 primary schoolers (Grades 1-4) and their parents; children and parents were tested with a standardised measure of…

Background: Reading interest plays an important role in predicting and regulating the literacy development of deaf children, but the family factors influencing their reading interest have not been previously explored. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of parents' education and home literacy environment (HLE) on reading interest…

Background: The associations between the characteristics of the home literacy environment (HLE) and children's language and literacy skills have been established in first languages. This study investigated the longitudinal interplay between the father-child and mother-child HLE and children's English language skills as L2. Methods: In this study,…

Background: Accumulating evidence shows that the home literacy environment (HLE) has a potent and early influence on children's language and literacy development. However, there is a more limited understanding of HLE and its contribution to children's outcomes for simultaneous bilingual children exposed to two languages at home, particularly in…

Background: The role of morphological awareness for literacy development is non-controversial, but it is likely to depend on the characteristics of a specific orthography. Previous studies analysing the role of morphological awareness are mainly based on English samples; thus, it is unclear how generalisable these results are. In the current…

Background: Dialogic reading (DR; Whitehurst et al., 1988) is an evidence-based intervention that promotes children's active participation in shared reading (Towson, 2016; Urbani, 2020; WWC, 2007, 2010). Since the development of DR, there has been a proliferation of studies evaluating the conditions and populations with which it is effective.…

Background: Approaches to teacher professional development, such as learning designs (LDs), can facilitate primary school teachers' appropriation of literacy technology in the classroom. LDs are detailed learning activities and interventions designed by teachers to plan their use of technology. Methods: Using a creative design methodology to carry…

Background: Research on academic development has mainly focused on early time periods with less attention on individual differences in development in the later school years. Methods: To improve our knowledge of how students develop academically during later school years, this study used a multivariate growth model to investigate the developmental…

Background: This study presents the findings of the first administration of a revised "Teachers' Sense of Efficacy for Literacy Instruction" ("TSELI") scale that reflects the changing landscape of 21st-century literacy instruction. Items include such aspects as reading, writing, viewing, listening, communicating using visual,…

Background: Multiple perspectives on cognitive development, including Cattell's Investment Theory (1963, 1987), suggest that fluid reasoning (Gf) is foundational to the development of academic knowledge and skills. Yet little is known of the role that Gf may play in reading achievement, particularly in comparison with a larger literature…

In this commentary, several core principles underlying the editorial and articles comprising the Special Issue on improving literacy engagement are identified and discussed. Those principles pertain to the multidimensional nature of literacy engagement, the explicit or implicit definitions offered for the construct, the positive contributions that…

Background: The study aimed to explore to what extent variables associated with lexical and sublexical spelling processes predicted single word spelling ability and whether patterns of lexical and sublexical processes were different across ages. Methods: Beginning (mean age 7 years, N=144) and advanced (mean age 9 years, N=114) English-speaking…

While development of a range of cognitive skills and strategies is integral to the literacy process and strong attainment, students' motivation, engagement and self-confidence also exert a powerful influence on academic achievement. In recent times in the field of literacy there has been renewed interest in motivation, engagement and sense of…

Background: We used two principles of implicit learning, variability and complexity, to train mental orthographic representations in refugee English learners to improve spelling. Methods: Twenty-eight refugees enrolled in a 10-week English class were trained on classroom words using stimuli designed to encourage implicit learning. We contrasted…

This article explores theoretical and methodological issues in literacy studies emerging from an investigation of how children and adults make meanings when virtual worlds are embedded in classroom contexts. Drawing on the work of Law and Mol and Kwa's exploration of "baroque complexity", it highlights the importance of recognising…