Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

The Carnegie Foundation's report on school readiness suggests that the skills leading up to children's successful reading are not always acquired. The role that parents play in strengthening their children's early academic skills is a critical area of research inquiry since parents are their children's first teachers. Existing research has focused mostly on the frequency of parental literacy practices and its relationship to children's academic outcomes. Much of this work also relies primarily on self-report. However, Dickinson and Tabors (2001) have argued that how parents interact with their children may be just as important, if not more important to skill acquisition than the frequency of parental literacy practices. Accordingly, the present study tests this assertion by examining how the quantity and quality of parental literacy practices are related to children's early academic outcomes. This research represents an advance over previous work by incorporating observations of parental literacy practices which provide a stronger basis for claims about the impact of how parents interact with children. Data for this research were collected early in children's kindergarten year as part of the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) multi-state study of public pre-k. Parents (N=160) reported the frequency in which they engaged in various teaching practices with their children (reading, letters/sounds, measuring, defining words, and adding/subtracting). Additionally, parents and children were observed doing three interaction tasks together, which were coded for the use of dialogic practices (explanation and elaboration techniques, and degree of supportive presence). Children's academic skills were assessed using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Oral and Written Language Scale of the OWLS, and the Letter Identification and Applied Problems Subtests of the Woodcock Johnson III Test of Achievement. Multiple regression analyses were employed to investigate the effects of dialogic and reported frequency of parental teaching practices on children's outcomes. After controlling for socioeconomic status, greater use of dialogic practices was associated with significantly higher scores on children's vocabulary (F_3,156= 8.986, p<.05) and oral language measures (F_3,153 = 10.379, p<.05). However, reported frequency of teaching practices was not a significant predictor. In contrast, greater reported frequency of teaching practices was associated with significantly higher scores on children's letter identification skills (F_3,153= 2.445, p<.05). However, dialogic practices was not a significant predictor. Neither dialogic nor reported frequency of practices was related to children's mathematical abilities. Overall, the results indicate that both the quantity and quality of parental practices are critical for the development of children's academic skills. Most importantly, the findings suggest that parental practices may be differentially related to children's outcomes. Dialogic practices appear to be more important for the development of children's higher order linguistic skills as reflected in richer vocabularies and ability to express themselves, whereas direct teaching practices may be more important for rote skills such as letter knowledge. School readiness interventions for parents and their children should emphasize the importance of both the quantity and quality of parental practices and the differential effects that parental practices may have on children's academic skills.