A socioeconomic comparison of emergent literacy and home literacy in Australian preschoolers

Abstract

Family socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy practices impact upon children’s early literacy development. The present study explored where current emergent literacy and home literacy differences lie in Australian preschoolers aged three to five years from lower SES (n = 49) and higher SES (n = 52) homes. Children were assessed on letter knowledge, print concepts, and name writing. Parent literacy teaching, storybook-reading, and home literacy resource data were gathered via a home questionnaire. Duration of parent–child reading was similar for both SES groups. Lower SES parents taught their children less frequently about print compared to higher SES parents with lower SES children performing more poorly on print skills. This suggests that home reading may not be sufficiently fostering print skills in lower SES children highlighting the need for policymakers to enable lower SES parents to engage in more print-based strategies to help bridge the literacy gap.

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