Analysis of Home Literacy Environment in Chilean Families of Children with Down Syndrome

ABSTRACT

Home Literacy Environment (HLE) plays a fundamental role in the development of reading and writing skills in children. Evidence suggests differences in HLE components based on cultural and idiosyncratic characteristics. Most studies show a relationship between contextual variables with the quality of HLE in typically developing (TD) children. There are HLE studies with families of children with Down syndrome (DS) that show similar results, but the characteristics of HLE for Latin-American families of children with DS remain unexplored. This study analyses the HLE in a group of 161 families of children with DS, between 3 and 12 years of age, living in urban areas of Chile. Data were collected using an online survey. Results showed differences on the amount of literacy materials, linguistic environment, and beliefs and expectations of parents. Better HLE was observed in families with parents with high educational levels. In the context of previous studies from developed countries with families of children with DS and from Chile with families of TD children, the HLE of families with children with DS in Chile seems poor. This descriptive evidence is necessary to raise concerns in policy makers and national funding agencies to open a way to conduct experimental studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Down Syndrome
• home
• Latin America
• literacy

Acknowledgments

This study was conducted thanks to the funding from the Chilean Government through FONDEF IT 14I10044, FONDECYT 11150800, and ANID – Millennium Science Initiative Programme – ICS2019_024. Special thanks to all the families that participated by online survey.

Declaration of Conflict and Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript and there is no financial interest to report.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico [11150800]; Fondo de Fomento al Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico [IT14I10044]; ANID [Millennium Institute Initiative – ICS2019_024].