Learning to read is globally recognized as necessary to positive development and life success, with sustainable development goals focused on literacy in children, youth and adults.

A child’s home language and literacy learning environment is especially critical in the preschool and early school years to develop reading and math skills, impacting later academic success.

Knowing what in a child’s home is strongly linked with their language and literacy skills, whether they have access to books, which languages are spoken or reading behaviors of their caregivers, is needed to design effective literacy programs.

Previous research largely focuses on homes in high-income countries. This underrepresentation of diverse contexts strains our ability to promote literacy for all children, especially those in highest need.

A 2024 research review by Dr. Sonali Nag and her team addresses this gap by focusing on studies conducted in 43 low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean to broaden our understanding of how languages spoken, literacy-related resources and practices in a children’s home interact.

Adult literacy practices and books at home

Depending on the country, a child’s ability to read can be impacted differently by adult literacy practices and the number of books in their home.

In high-income countries, there’s a stronger link between children’s reading comprehension and how involved parents are (e.g. reading to their child)/their beliefs about literacy, than with home literacy resources. Availability of reading material in the home is important, but quality reading interactions between children and adults seem to matter more.

When looking at low- and middle-income (LMI) countries, there’s a shift. In Latin America, how often parents read to their children predicted their performance on grade-level language tests in only 5 out of 11 countries.

In contrast, the availability of books had a strong relationship with children’s early reading skill in Central America, Asia and Africa based on data from 18 Save the Children project sites and was also main predictor for student performance on grade-level language tests across 10 countries in Southern and East Africa.

Nag and colleagues also found the number of books at home and adult literacy practices in LMI countries had a significantly larger association with children’s language and literacy skills than did home tutoring.

This is not to say home tutoring doesn’t matter, but language barriers and how children are tutored can impact its positive effect.

Nag’s 2019 research review found parents who didn’t know the school language drew on their social networks to find someone who could tutor, whether from their community, extended family or neighborhood. Still, the positive impact of home tutoring was dampened when home tutors tried to imitate school teachers insufficiently trained in literacy pedagogy, underscoring the need for quality teacher training for quality learning whether in school or at home.

The need for localized assessments

When thinking about research evidence for what works to promote literacy and the home learning environment, we can’t ignore that results and findings depend on the assessments.

For low- and middle-income (LMI) countries, Nag’s research found the strength of the relationship between child language and literacy and home factors depended on the study’s country and which measures were used.

Studies including customized measures, and thus more sensitive to context, had higher correlations between child outcomes and the home learning environment than studies that opted for commonly used multisite assessments.

Associations between home factors and child skill in LMI studies were also less strong than correlations reported by studies from high-income countries. This doesn’t mean there’s ‘less of’ or ‘no relationship’ between the home learning environment and children’s language and literacy in LMI countries; instead, it highlights the need for assessments that capture homes in different cultures to detect it.

Towards inclusive understanding of the home learning environment

In countries where many children are behind in their literacy skills, it’s vital to consider how social and cultural factors shape their learning and which assessments are being used to track their progress.

Current understanding of the home language learning and literacy environment needs to change. For low- and middle-income countries, diversity in languages, writing systems and level of access to resources need to be considered.

A one size fits all approach can undermine language learning experiences that may not ‘fit’ but are still part of and enhance children’s skill development.

When assessments capture the nature of homes in different contexts, we gain a better sense of how to promote language and literacy for all children. Whether this involves adapting existing assessments or developing entirely new ones, localized measures can lead to more inclusive and potentially more impactful language and literacy programs.

For more information on localized language interventions in early childhood, please see the TalkTogether project.