Poster #39 - Do Preschoolers' Classroom and Home Environment Profiles Predict Their Literacy Skill Outcomes?

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Print knowledge, phonological awareness, oral language, and emergent writing are foundational skills developed during preschool that contribute to successful reading abilities (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). Preschoolers who encounter difficulties learning these skills often benefit from targeted emergent literacy interventions (Bailet et al., 2009, 2013; Goldstein et al., 2017; Gonzalez et al., 2011; Kelley et al., 2015; Kruse et al., 2015; Lonigan et al., 2011; Pollard-Durodola et al., 2016; Zettler-Greeley et al., 2018). Yet, the extent to which children benefit from such interventions may depend on contextual factors including the classroom (Mashburn et al., 2016) and home (Han et al., 2017; Romeo et al., 2018) learning environments. Theoretically, classroom and home environments contribute to the literacy development for children at-risk for reading difficulties (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Weigel et al., 2005). Both environments have been empirically shown to relate to emergent literacy skills (Crosnoe et al., 2010; Han et al., 2017), including the physical and instructional supports of the classroom environment (Guo et al., 2012) and code-focused teaching and shared-reading supports in the home environment (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002). To date, however, we have limited understanding about the interplay between such environments and emergent literacy development for children at-risk for reading difficulties, particularly in the context of intervention. We intend to use a person-centered approach to better understand the interaction of these environments, how they relate to emergent literacy skills for children at-risk for reading difficulties and inform our understanding about for whom and under what environmental contexts an intervention may be successful.

Across three sequential cohorts, 281 preschoolers identified as at-risk for literacy difficulties, within 98 classrooms, were randomly assigned to three conditions: teacher-implemented (n = 101) or community-aide-implemented (n = 94) intervention, and control (n = 86). For this study, the treatment conditions will be combined (n = 195), and we will utilize a treatment-on-the-treated approach assigning children who received zero intervention lessons (i.e., never-takers) into the control. We ask three research questions (RQ): RQ1) What profiles of preschoolers emerge based on characteristics of the classroom and home environments for children at-risk for literacy difficulties? RQ2) Does a child’s profile membership predict skill gains in print knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and letter writing over the preschool year? RQ3) Does profile membership moderate a child’s response to a small-group literacy intervention for print knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and letter writing?

For RQ1, we will use latent class analysis to identify potential profile memberships of preschoolers based on classroom and home environment characteristics. We will use multilevel modeling to answer RQ2 and RQ3 to account for nesting within classrooms; the corresponding pretest score will be entered as a covariate to model residualized gains. For RQ2, profile membership will be dummy coded and used to predict preschoolers’ literacy outcomes. For RQ3, the interaction between profile membership and intervention condition will be used to assess whether environmental factors moderate children’s response to intervention.

We expect results to demonstrate that literacy-enriched classroom and home environments support preschooler’s gains in foundational early literacy skills.

Authors

• Kandia Lewis, Nemours Children’s Health
  Presenting Author

• Shayne B. Piasta, Ohio State University

• Alida Hudson

• Cynthia M. Zettler-Greeley, Nemours Children’s Health