With an Introduction by Anthony D. Pellegrini, this work is one of the most extensive studies of early language and literacy undertaken to date. This volume describes the four interdisciplinary facets of a three-year longitudinal investigation of the early literate and linguistic experience and knowledge of a cohort of sixty 3- and 4-year-olds. Coverage includes: an extensive survey of home literate environment and development across a broad range of earliest literate and meta-literate knowledge over the three-year span of the study; links early literate experience and knowledge to differential strategies of speech act comprehension over time, showing that early literate experience heightens dependence upon linguistic as distinct from contextual information in comprehension; the employment of parent-child book reading as the matrix for a detailed analysis of lexical development, relating forms of parent-child interaction around text to variation in sophistication of reference; and finally, the examination of child-child interaction in a detailed, naturalistic framework, in relation to aspects of literate experience and knowledge.

PrefaceIntroduction: The Importance of a Developmental Perspective in Early Literacy ResearchFrom Communication to LiteracyHome Literacy Environment and Meta-Literate AwarenessEarly Literate Experience, Meta-literate Knowledge and the Comprehension of Speech ActsTalk About Text: Literate Discourse and Meta-Literate KnowledgeLiterate Apprenticeships and Oral DiscourseA Portrait of the Literate Apprentice