The Home Literacy Environment of Spanish-Speaking Latino Families With Kindergarten Children

• In Event: 18.042 - Home Learning Activities and Family Engagement Across Preschool and Kindergarten

Abstract

Current statistics in the US indicate that about 21% of households speak a primary language other than English at home. Among these households, Spanish has been identified as the most prevalent home language, with recent estimates close to 62% (Ryan, 2013). Yet, little is known about the home literacy environments (HLEs) of these households, or how these HLEs contribute to the development of future reading skills. The goal of the present study is twofold: (1) characterize the heterogeneity of the home literacy environment of Spanish-speaking Latino households with children in kindergarten and (2) examine the predictive ability of the resulting HLE classes on a grade 3 reading outcome.
We base the current study in the context of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986) and the environmental hypothesis (Stanovitch, 1986). The lens through which we will investigate this work is a family-centered ecological lens, which acknowledges the significant role that home and parents exert as contributors to children’s school readiness and future school success (Mashburn & Pianta, 2006; Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000).
This study uses the fall kindergarten wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten (ECLS-K: 2011) to explore the heterogeneity in the home literacy environment of Spanish-speaking Latino families. We used data from 1,961 households where Spanish was spoken at home and children’s ethnicity as reported by parents was defined as Hispanic. The heterogeneity of families was characterized by using a comprehensive list of 18 items available in the ECLS-K: 2011 as part of the Home Environment, Activities, and Cognitive Stimulation Questionnaire and the Parent Language Spoken Questionnaire. Items included Spanish use at home (both by child and caregiver), frequency of literacy activities such as singing to child, telling stories, doing arts and crafts, and practicing words and numbers, as well as reading-related activities both in English and Spanish. Items related to resources such as number of books, household income and caregiver's education were also included.
Using latent class analysis (LCA) we found evidence suggesting that the HLE of Spanish-speaking Latino families was characterized by 3 classes which differed in their use of Spanish at home as well as their use of Spanish for HLE-related activities. For all three classes, reading in Spanish to child did not occur very frequently regardless of the varied amounts of Spanish use that were present across classes in parent-child and child-parent interactions as well as Spanish use during other literacy activities. Despite the differences in literacy practices and language use among the 3 HLE classes (as measured in kindergarten), no significant differences in grade 3 reading were found between classes.
Overall, the present study's comprehensive view of the home literacy environment of Spanish-speaking Latino families allows us to understand the similarities and differences among this diverse group in terms of literacy activities and language practices at home.

Authors

• Gloria Yeomans-Maldonado, University of Michigan

• Ann A. O'Connell, The Ohio State University