Author Description

The research collected in this new issue seeks to identify whichaspects of family literacy environments promote children's emergingliteracy and which experiences in the home facilitate thedevelopment of children's literacy skills. This issue presents aninnovative model of emergent literacy in which written language, atall levels of specificity, is at the center of the construct ofemergent literacy. In addition, studies presented in this issuehighlight the association between child and family literacy acrossage and socioeconomic background. These studies demonstrate thespecificity of associations between family literacy environmentsand young children's emerging literacy skills, showing that theparticular type of literacy interaction influences the particularliteracy skill being developed. This is the 92nd issue of the Jossey-Bass series NewDirections for Child and Adolescent Development.