Studies of preschool reading are reviewed to determine environmental factors repeatedly associated with early reading. (DD)

The comprehension of written stories starts with learning to comprehend everyday situations, but it is the child's direct experiences with written stories that bring the process to fruition. These direct experiences with stories are generally of two types. Initially there is a storybook time, the occasions upon which a literate person, usually the…

Some children become capable readers and writers before ever attending school and without exposure to formal instruction. This phenomenon--sometimes referred to as natural literacy development--is not, in the strictest sense, natural; as the adult presents much of the literacy environment to the child in a socialized, mediated form, teaching is…

Instead of merely correlating the amount of time a child is read to with gross measures of language development or reading achievement, researchers need to examine closely, through naturalistic studies, the underlying construction and organization of story book reading events between parent and child. The notion of scaffolding, in which the adult…