The effects of the early home reading socialization on children's academic achievement

The subject of the dissertation thesis is research of the early reading literacy at first stage of the primary school. We examine how is reading literacy influenced by the family socio-cultural backgrounds (education, two different forms of cultural capital). First, we outline the current knowledge in the field of language and cognitive development of children in the context of family background and the concept of cultural capital in the form of home literacy environment. Second, we present the findings of a 6-year longitudinal study with 439 children and their parents from Prague and Central Bohemian region. We investigate (a) an existing difference in pre-literacy among primary schoolers based on the socio-cultural climate of the family and (b) this level of pre-literacy at the beginning of school in the (transition to multi-year grammar schools from the sixth grade. Children enter school with different levels of pre-literacy, but the lead of those who show a higher level of initial literacy will not be lost even after two years of schooling (we reject the Matthew effect hypothesis). The differences can be explained based on education and the effect of cultural advantage. The level of reading pre-literacy at the beginning of the first stage affects the school results at the end of the first..