Home Environment, Teacher Language, and Literacy Development Across the First Grade Year

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Buchanan, Kelly
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

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Existing research has established both parent behavior and teacher language to be important mechanisms in memory development during the early elementary years. Preliminary research on math achievement during this time has suggested that these relationships extend into achievement domains. The purpose of this investigation was to test if these patterns extend into literacy development. Literacy outcomes at the beginning of the first grade year and growth across the year were explored as a function of home literacy environment and teacher mnemonic style. Children who scored higher on the Family Literacy Environment subscale performed better on literacy tasks at both the beginning and end of the first grade. However, children in classrooms with high mnemonic teachers did not show different levels of growth in literacy outcomes when compared to children with low mnemonic teachers. These patterns suggest that a richer home literacy environment does predict better literacy performance at the beginning and throughout the first grade, while teacher memory talk does not appear to be related to literacy outcomes across the year. The results of this study suggest that home environment is important in fostering literacy development in early childhood, though further research is needed to understand the specific mechanisms that should be employed to facilitate literacy development in the classroom.

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