The story-retellings of preschoolers from differing home-literacy environments

Research into emergent reading behaviors of preschool children has centered on their metalinguistic awareness and developing concepts about print. Emerging at the same time is their sense of story and ability to engage in various storying activities. A causal-comparative study linked these two areas of research by examining the story-retellings of three and four year old children from differing home-literacy environments. Comparison groups were based on age and results taken from an inventory of literacy background. It was expected that four year olds would include more story elements and literary devices and demonstrate more book orientation behaviors in their retelling of a wordless picture book than three year olds. It was predicted that significant differences would be apparent in comparisons of three and four year olds from differing home-literacy environments. Results indicated clear differences by age and statistically significant differences between four year olds from higher and lower home-literacy environments. Differences between three year old groups were in the predicted direction, but were not statistically significant. With evidence that a rich home-literacy environment nurtures more sophisticated storytelling , implications for parents and educators were discussed, as well as future research directions.Education, Faculty ofCurriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department ofGraduat