Contributions of Mother–Child Storybook Telling and Joint Writing to Literacy Development in Kindergartners With Hearing Loss

Abstract

Purpose This study investigated mother–child storybook telling and joint writing as predictors of early literacy among kindergartners with hearing loss. Method Participants were 30 Israeli kindergartners with hearing loss and their mothers. Early literacy assessments tapped children’s alphabetic skills (e.g., word writing, word recognition, and letter knowledge) and linguistic skills (e.g., phonological awareness, general knowledge, and receptive vocabulary). Each mother told her child the story of a wordless book and helped her child write words. Both interactions were videotaped and analyzed. Results Our major findings showed that maternal storybook telling correlated with linguistic skills, and maternal writing mediation correlated with basic alphabetic skills. A series of 3-step hierarchical regression analyses revealed that beyond children’s age, children’s degree of hearing loss, and joint writing, storybook telling predicted children’s phonological awareness (22%), general knowledge (28%), and receptive vocabulary (18%). Beyond children’s age, children’s degree of hearing loss, and storybook telling, joint writing predicted word writing (15%), word recognition (31%), and letter knowledge (36%). Implications Recommendations focused on encouraging parent and teacher awareness about the differential contributions of storybook telling and writing mediation to early literacy. We also advocated enhancing parents' skills for promoting children’s literacy.