The Role of Preschoolers’ Home Literacy Environment and Emergent Literacy Skills on Later Reading and Writing Skills in Primary School: A Mediational Model

The introduction highlights the recognized importance of early home literacy environment and practices (HLE&P) on children's reading and writing development. It emphasizes the need to clarify the mediational role of emergent literacy skills (notational and phonological awareness) in this relationship, especially considering the preschool period as crucial for developing these foundational skills. The study aims to expand on existing literature by using a longitudinal design to examine these mediational pathways in Italian children.

This section defines home literacy as an articulated construct encompassing both child-initiated and parent-guided practices, including code-related (e.g., invented spelling) and meaning-related (e.g., shared reading) activities. It also details emergent literacy skills, specifically phonological awareness (identifying sound units) and notational awareness (translating sounds to written signs). The predictive value of these skills for later reading and writing, particularly in transparent orthographies like Italian, is discussed, noting that notational awareness plays a strong predictive role in such languages due to the consistent sound-sign correspondence.

Prior research has established direct links between home literacy and emergent literacy skills, and between emergent literacy skills and later reading and writing. However, the exact mediational role of emergent literacy skills in the relationship between HLE&P and later reading/writing in transparent orthographies remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by investigating these relationships using a mediational model, recognizing the preschool period as a vital stage for literacy development.

The study involved 115 Italian preschoolers (mean age 4.88 years) followed longitudinally into their first year of primary school. In preschool, parents completed a questionnaire on HLE&P, and children undertook tasks for notational awareness (invented spelling) and phonological awareness (identifying and producing sound patterns). In primary school, children's writing accuracy (text dictation) and reading skills (accuracy and speed using the MT reading test) were assessed. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson's bivariate correlations, and simple mediational models.

Descriptive statistics and correlations showed that home literacy correlated significantly with both emergent literacy skills (phonological and notational awareness) and later reading speed and writing accuracy. Mediational analyses revealed that notational awareness fully mediated the relationship between HLE&P and reading speed, as well as between HLE&P and writing accuracy. This means that better home literacy leads to better notational awareness, which in turn leads to improved reading speed and writing accuracy. Phonological awareness, however, did not show a significant mediational role in these relationships.

The study confirms the crucial role of preschoolers' notational awareness in mediating the link between home literacy and primary school reading/writing skills in Italian, a transparent orthography. This highlights the importance of integrating sound-sign knowledge in early literacy. The findings suggest that a richer home literacy environment fosters higher notational awareness, which then supports later literacy development. The non-mediational role of phonological awareness is attributed to its focus on the verbal channel compared to notational awareness's direct sound-sign connection, and the nature of phonological activities at home being less analytical than required for formal literacy. Practical implications include promoting parental awareness of home literacy's importance and designing preschool interventions that target notational awareness.

The study acknowledges limitations, such as relying on self-report questionnaires for HLE&P, suggesting that future research could use multiple observations or interviews for more robust data. It also recommends considering contextual and cognitive predictors simultaneously and conducting longer longitudinal studies to identify potential reading or writing difficulties at later primary school grades.