This study investigated whether mothers’
measured reading proficiency and their educational level
predict, over and above each other, their children’s recep￾tive vocabulary and reading proficiency when confounding
factors of speaking a minority language, ethnicity, number
of children in the family, and marital and employment
status are controlled. The sample included 155 children
(aged 3–5 years) and their mothers (aged 20–44 years) of
low income and low educational background from Western
Canada. Findings support the conclusion that maternal
reading level predicts both their children’s receptive
vocabulary and reading proficiency prior to schooling after
maternal education is taken into account. The findings also
show, after the effects of maternal reading ability are
removed, maternal education predicts their children’s
reading ability prior to school but not their receptive
vocabulary proficiency. Thus, maternal reading proficiency
and maternal education appear not to serve as proxies for
each other, and the use of both variables should be used in
studies where children’s reading and receptive vocabulary
proficiency are dependent measures. Early childhood edu￾cators dedicated to the improvement of the language and
literacy levels of children in their care may consider the
implementation of programs that focus on improving
mothers’ reading proficiency whereby their children’s
levels also improve. Early childhood education is the prime
time to provide a richer and more fruitful approach to
reduce the persistent knowledge gap of children from low￾income and low-educational background families.

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Tersedia

• Unique Contributions of Maternal Reading Proficiency to Predicting Children’s Preschool Receptive Vocabulary and Reading Proficiency

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