The varied influence of the home literacy environment on Chinese preschoolers’ word reading skills

An early home literacy environment is essential to children’s later reading development. However, few studies have explored the home literacy environment’s influence on Chinese reading in preschoolers across a wide age range. The present study mainly investigated the effects of the home literacy environment on Chinese word reading in 3- to 6-year-old children. Additionally, children’s literacy interest, which is important for reading development and interacts with the home literacy environment, was also measured. Two hundred twenty-three children were recruited and completed a Chinese character recognition task, and their parents were asked to rate the children’s home literacy environment. The results showed that the home literacy environment changed significantly with children’s age, suggesting that the home literacy environment may change over time. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the effect of the home literacy environment on Chinese word reading showed different patterns across age groups. Specifically, parent reading instruction and children’s interest in print played unique roles in the Chinese word reading of 4-year-old children. Moreover, home reading resources independently contributed to 6-year-olds’ word reading skills, with a marginally significant effect of parent reading instruction. The results provided important evidence for the home literacy model in early Chinese word reading development and highlighted the necessity of incorporating children’s literacy interest into investigations of the home literacy environment.