Family Environments and the Acquisition of Reading Skills

Abstract

As fields of inquiry, studies of family influences on reading and research on cognitive processes involved in reading have developed along quite different lines. Several researchers have constructed relatively differentiated models of the act of reading. By identifying independent components, these differentiated models make it possible to describe more precisely the steps through which reading is learned, to diagnose reading problems, and to plan interventions directed at particular difficulties. Taking a different approach, researchers on the effects of family variables on reading have attempted to identify aspects of the family environment that are correlated with global measures of reading skill. Studies of family effects have not often taken advantage of the differentiated analysis of reading to specify how particular features of family experience map onto the components of this skill. Conversely, research on reading has not examined the specific origins of component skills in the family setting.