DevSci Colloquium: Katie Leech (UNC, HDQM '16)

Literacy is everywhere: Identifying opportunities to support children’s language and literacy within everyday routines

Abstract: The home literacy environment is a consistent predictor of children’s language and literacy skills at school entry. However, many parents hold a relatively narrow conception of what activities and what contexts comprise the home literacy environment. In this talk I will present data to suggest that “literacy is everywhere” – not just in the classroom or time set aside for formal lessons, but during relatively predicable routines and activities in the home. This expanded definition of home literacy is better able to capture diverse practices of families and capitalize on existing strengths. Study 1 describes variation in the diversity of contexts (play, mealtimes, bath-time, outdoors, etc.) where parents report engaging in literacy activities with their children.  In study 2, I present an intervention approach aimed at broadening parents’ conceptions about the diverse activities and routines which can support preschoolers’ early literacy skills.

Bio: Katie Leech is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the faculty at UNC, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Boston University.  Her research investigates how interactions between caregivers and children support children’s language and emergent literacy skills during early childhood.  Her research takes place in multiple contexts (e.g., mealtimes, book reading, museums) and includes mother-child and father-child interactions in families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.  She received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Quantitative Methodology from the University of Maryland in 2016 and her B.A. in Psychology from Kenyon College in 2010.