Intersubjectivity as a Precursor to Literacy: Revisiting the Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Literacy Research With Early Childhood Readers

Abstract

This study investigates how young children’s early oral language experiences position them for later success in learning to reading. Data from the Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development were reanalyzed by coding language samples for aspects of caregiver-child intersubjectivity. These intersubjective measures were quantified and entered into three separate regression models to test the predictability of parent-child joint meaning-making on children’s later reading scores. Results revealed positive, significant relationships between early parent-child language experiences and children’s literacy scores in kindergarten and first grade, thus adding to the oral language-to-literacy research base. Additionally, this study introduces and provides empirical support for a new method of quantifying language variables that aligns closer with social interactionist theory than traditional quantitative studies.

Author

• Jayce R. Warner, The University of Texas - Austin