The effect of the home literacy environment on the development of written narrative skills in 8-11-year-old children

Narrative skills have been widely studied over the past decades given their great significance to children's language and cognitive development. In spite of the numerous studies on narratives, little is known about the relationship between home literacy environment and children's narrative competence. To this end, this study aimed to examine the effects of home literacy environment factors on the development of written narrative skills. A sample of 54 Chinese children aged 8–11 years and their parents were recruited. Child written narrative skills were assessed, and parents were asked to complete the Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire. Children's written narrative skills were found to increase with age, and their quality was found to be positively associated with the frequency of informal literacy activities offered by parents in the home environment. These findings highlight the important impact of the home literacy environment on the early development of children's language competence.