METODO DE EVALUACION DE RIESGO DE INCENDIO [1]

Television  might  also  constitute  a  source  of  language  learning  for  children  and,   according  to  Purcell-­‐Gates  (1996),  is  a  source  of  print  exposure.  However  the  benefits   of  TV  watching  depend  largely  on  the  frequency  of  exposure  as  well  as  on  the  content   watched  and  on  the  interaction  among  viewers.  

Several  correlational  and  longitudinal  studies  have  looked  at  the  effects  of  TV  on   cognitive  development  but  there  are  very  few  experimental  studies.  Typically,  the   studies  performed  during  the  1970s  and  up  to  the  early  1980s  focused  on  total  TV   viewing;  their  conclusion  was  that  there  was  a  negative  correlation  between  total   viewing  and  children´s  skills  development.  For  example,  in  their  meta-­‐analysis,  

Williams,  Haertel,  Walberg  &  Haertel  (1982)  found  that  the  average  correlation  of  total   TV  viewing  with  school  achievement  was  -­‐0.5.  Later  studies,  however,  have  

differentiated  more  between  type  of  program  watched  and  differential  effects   according  to  the  age  or  SES  of  the  child  watching  TV.    

Up  to  2003,  most  of  the  research  on  TV  and  its  effects  on  cognitive  development  had   been  done  with  children  of  preschool  age  or  above.  Two  exceptions  to  this  were  the   studies  by  Wright,  Huston,  Murphy,  St.  Peters,  Piñon,  Scantlin  &  Kotler  (2001)  and  by   Rideout,  Vandewater  &  Wartella  (2003),  which  studied  children  from  the  age  of  six  and   below.  

Regarding  TV  and  its  effect  on  language  and  literacy  development,  the  literature  seems   to  indicate  that  this  effect  is  a  function  of  (a)  the  type  of  programs  watched,  (b)  the   amount  of  time  spent  watching  TV  and  (c)  the  alternative  uses  of  the  time  spent  

watching  TV,  as  discussed  further  below.  Finally,  there  is  evidence  that  the  relationship   of  TV-­‐viewing  to  school  achievement  could  be  curvilinear  (Williams  et  al.  1982).  

a. Type of program watched

There  is  evidence  that  watching  certain  children-­‐directed  educational  programs  and   informative  programs  might  be  associated  with  higher  achievement  and  school   readiness  skills.  In  the  longitudinal  study  by  Wright  et  al.  (2001)  with  a  multi-­‐ethnic   sample  of  children  aged  from  two  to  seven  from  middle  to  low  SES  families,  watching   informative  programs  for  children  was  related  to  letter  word  skills,  number  skills,   receptive  vocabulary  and  school  readiness.    

Few  specific  educational  TV  programs,  however,  have  showed  significant  positive   effects  on  language  and  literacy  outcomes.  Studies  have  showed  that  watching  Sesame   Street  between  the  ages  of  three  and  five  improved  school-­‐related  skills  in  kindergarten   (Zill,  Davies  &  Daly,  1994)  and  receptive  vocabulary  at  the  age  of  five  (Rice,  Huston,   Truglio  &  Wright,  1990).  Similarly,  watching  the  program  The  Electric  Company  

improved  reading  performance  between  first  and  fourth  grade  (Ball  &  Bogatz,  1973,  in   Wright  et  al.,  2001).  There  is  also  evidence  that  watching  informative  programs  could   have  a  positive  impact  on  letter  recognition  and  reading  skills  (Truglio,  Huston  &   Wright,  1986).  As  a  consequence  of  this  evidence,  studies  such  as  the  family  literacy   intervention  Early  Access  to  Success  in  Education  (project  EASE),  included  among  their   measures  of  home  literacy,  a  measure  of  the  frequency  of  exposure  to  educational   programs  (Jordan,  Snow  &  Porsche,  2000).    

On  the  other  hand,  watching  general  entertainment  programs,  or  adult  entertainment   programs,  has  been  negatively  related  to  school  achievement  (Rosengren  &  Windhal,   1989).  Furthermore,  it  has  also  been  associated  with  poor  letter  word  recognition  at   the  age  of  five  (Truglio  et  al.,  1986)  and  with  diminished  results  in  reading  

comprehension  (Koolstra,  van  der  Voort,  &  van  der  Kamp,  1997).  Further,  in  a  study  of   Dutch  children  from  second  to  eighth  grade,  TV-­‐viewing  was  related  to  a  subsequent   decrease  in  positive  attitudes  towards  reading  which,  in  turn,  predicted  reading   achievement  and  time  spent  reading  (Koolstra  &  van  der  Voort,  1996,  in  Wright  et  al.,   2001,  p.  1349).  (For  a  review,  see  Wright  et  al.,  2001).  

b. Amount of time spent watching TV

Research  indicates  that  children  who  have  access  to  TV  or  videogames  spend  part  of   their  time  at  home  using  these  resources.  For  example,  in  Romero-­‐Contreras  et  al.´s   study  (N=193)  with  Costa  Rican  families  from  different  SES  backgrounds  (2007),  46%   of  caregivers  reported  that  when  they  had  free  time  to  share  with  the  child  they  

watched  TV  together,  while  7%  reported  that  they  turned  the  TV  on  for  the  child  to   watch.    

A  report  from  Rideout  et  al.  from  the  Kaiser  Family  Foundation,  (2010)  estimated  that   children  of  eight  to  18  years  of  age  viewed  almost  five  hours  of  TV  and  other  screen   media  a  day.  Furthermore,  in  their  2003  representative  study  with  American  children,   Rideout  et  al.  (2003)  found  that  American  children  aged  six  and  under  spent  on  average   approximately  two  hours  per  day  watching  screen  media.  Also,  in  two  thirds  of  these   children´s  homes,  TV  was  on  half  of  the  time  or  more;  one  third  lived  in  homes  where   the  television  was  always  on  or  most  of  the  time.  Moreover,  43%  of  children  aged   between  four  and  six  had  televisions  in  their  bedrooms.    

 The  Early  Childhood  Longitudinal  Study–Birth  Cohort  (ECLS-­‐b)  (2010),  a  US-­‐based,   longitudinal,  observational  study  with  a  nationally  representative  sample  of  over   10,000  children  born  in  2001  with  diverse  socioeconomic  and  ethnic  backgrounds   found  that  on  average,  US  preschool  children  were  exposed  to  about  four  hours  of   screen  time  on  weekdays.  This  screen  time  included  time  spent  using  TV,  DVDs,   computers,  and  video  games  (Tandon,  Zhou,  Lozano  &  Christakis,  2010).  

c. Alternative uses of time spent watching TV

One  of  the  explanations  that  researchers  have  given  to  the  fact  that  entertainment  TV   generally  has  a  negative  effect  on  cognitive  developmental  measures  is  that  TV   watching  could  be  displacing  other  activities  of  higher  cognitive  value  such  as  reading   or  social  interaction  (Huston  et  al,  1999;  Wright  &  Huston,  1995),  especially  since   young  children  frequently  watch  general  entertainment  programs  with  adults  who,   while  watching  TV,  could  be  less  responsive  and  therefore  provide  less  linguistic   interactions  with  the  child  (Wright  et  al.,  2001).  Other  researchers,  however,  have   argued  that  there  is  no  evidence  to  support  this  displacement  theory  and  that  the  time   children  spend  watching  TV  or  reading  is  unrelated  (Vandewater,  Bickham,  Lee,   Cummings,  Wartella  &  Rideout,  2005).  

There  is  evidence  that  low  SES  children´s  skills  development  might  benefit  more  than   their  more  advantaged  peers  from  TV.  For  example,  Comstock  (1991)  concluded  that   low  SES  children´s  general  achievement  might  benefit  from  TV  viewing  and  Searls,   Mead  &  Ward  (1985)  found  that  low  SES´s  children´s  reading  achievement  improved   with  TV  viewing  while  high  SES  children  did  not.  As  claimed  by  Wright  et  al.  (2001),   this  differentiated  effect  of  TV  viewing  on  high  SES  and  low  SES  children  might  be  due   to  differences  in  alternative  opportunities  for  learning  provided  by  their  environments.    

Discussion  

The  review  above  provides  abundant  evidence  that  home  language  and  literacy   practices  are  central  for  children’s  language  and  literacy  development.    

An  aspect  that  also  emerges  from  the  review  is  that,  as  Burgess  et  al.  (2002)  contended,   research  that  aims  at  studying  the  HLLE  needs  to  define  very  clearly  what  it  means  by   HLLE.  The  present  research  is  interested  in  understanding  not  only  the  home  language   and  literacy  practices  or  activities  but  the  home  language  and  literacy  ENVIRONMENT   (HLLE),  which,  following  Bronfenbrenner’s  theory  also  includes  cultural  models  or   blueprints  as  well  as  micro  system  interactions.  Consequently,  for  the  purpose  of  this   study,  the  HLLE  definition  is  an  adaptation  of  the  one  given  by  Burgess  et  al.  (2002):   that  is  to  say  that  the  HLLE  is  a  broad  construct  that  incorporates  meso  and  proximal   home  characteristics  that  influence  the  development  of  the  child’s  emergent  literacy   skills.  

This  multidimensional  conceptualization  of  the  HLLE  has  methodological  consequences   because  it  implies  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  study  simultaneously  a)  the  frequency  of   home  language  and  literacy  practices  and  their  relation  to  outcomes  (which  are  ideally   studied  through  quantitative  methods  such  as  correlational  analyses,  regression   analyses  and  factor  analyses);  b)  the  quality  of  the  home  language  and  literacy  

interactions  (which  can  be  studied  through  qualitative  and  quantitative  methods)  and   finally;  c)  the  cultural  and  historical  reasons  that  can  help  explain  those  behaviours   (which  call  for  qualitative  methods  such  as  in-­‐depth  interviews  and/or  naturalistic   observations  in  the  homes  of  the  children).  Consequently,  a  multidimensional   conceptualization  of  the  HLLE  calls  for  the  use  of  a  mixed  methods  approach.   The  ethnographic  studies  reviewed  (Heath,  1983;  Goldenberg  et  al.,  2005;  Lareau,   2003;  Purcell-­‐Gates,  1996)  provided  valuable  insight  into  caregivers’  life  experiences   that  have  shaped  their  cultural  models  of  literacy.  Similar  studies  focused  on  the   Chilean  or  South  American  population  and  specifically  on  low-­‐income  families  are   needed  in  order  to  improve  our  understanding  of  the  cultural  and  historical  causes  that   might  explain  the  home  literacy  practices  of  these  specific  groups.  

This  study  argues  that  this  multidimensional  conceptualization  of  the  HLLE  is   necessary  if  a  multidimensional  view  of  literacy  as  a  sociocultural  and  cognitive   practice  is  taken.  A  sociocultural  view  assumes  that  the  literacy  registers  that  a  family   develops  and  more  specifically  the  knowledge  a  family  has  of  the  school-­‐based  literacy   register  are  largely  dependent  on  the  context  and  on  the  uses  that  the  family  gives  to  

literacy.  Hence  it  is  important  to  study  literacy  practices  in  their  natural  context  in   order  to  understand  the  role  they  play  in  these  children’s  lives  and  also  to  understand   how  to  introduce  the  child  to  new  types  of  literacy  (such  as  school-­‐based  literacy,  for   example)  without  creating  cultural  mismatches  that  could  confuse  the  child  and  might   hinder  the  child’s  literacy  development.  Again  one  of  the  implications  of  this  is  

methodological  because  naturalistic  observations  would  be  needed  to  discover  the   characteristics  of  the  literacy  registers  that  are  natural  to  low  SES  Chilean  population.   Another  implication  of  this  sociocultural  approach  to  literacy  is  a  general  concern  for   discovering  these  families´  literacy  registers  (as  opposed  to  focusing  on  their  

disparities  in  relation  to  elements  of  Western  literacy).    

In  this  research,  literacy  is  perceived  as  both  a  sociocultural  and  cognitive  practice,   which  is  based  on  (several)  emergent  language  and  literacy  skills,  literacy  foundations,   beliefs,  environment  and  knowledge.  Each  of  these  aspects  can  be  affected  by  different   home  language  and  literacy  practices  in  an  individual  or  combined  way.  Each  of  these,   in  turn  and  interdependently,  constitute  the  basis  for  literacy  ability  which  is  a  

requisite  for  children  to  become  fluent  readers  who  can  derive  meaning  from  text  and   use  literacy  to  achieve  their  purposes.  Understanding  the  patterns  of  influence  of   specific  home  language  and  literacy  activities  on  the  different  emergent  language  and   literacy  skills  would  provide  valuable  information  for  the  design  of  home  literacy   programs  that  are  effective  in  enhancing  specific  language  and  literacy  skills.  

Most  of  the  research  on  emergent  literacy  and  family  literacy  has  focused  on  English-­‐ speaking  children  and  families  (or  populations  from  other  developed  countries  such  as   Dutch  families  and  Dutch  immigrants).  Consequently  it  is  unclear  to  what  extent  the   concepts  and  correlations  from  developed  countries’  research  on  emergent  literacy,   family  literacy  practices  and  connections  between  home  literacy  practices  and   children’s  attainment  apply  to  Latin  American  children  who  not  only  have  a  different   cultural  background  but  also  grow  up  learning  languages  other  than  English.  

Furthermore,  within  Latin  America,  most  of  the  research  on  home  or  family  literacy   practices  and  their  connection  to  children’s  attainment  has  been  conducted  in  Central   American  countries,  with  the  exception  of  Susperreguy  et  al.  (2007)  who  studied   Chilean  children  from  different  SES  backgrounds.  The  sociocultural  and  historical   context  of  these  Central  American  countries  might  be  different  to  the  South  American   and  specifically  to  the  Chilean  context.  This  research  aims  at  contributing  to  the   existing  literature  on  Latino  population´s  HLLE.  Specifically,  it  aims  at  finding   commonalities  and  variations  between  Chilean  low  SES  families  and  other  Latino   populations  previously  studied.    

A  large  amount  of  the  research  reviewed  compared  the  HLE  of  children  from  different   SES  groups  or  from  different  cultures.  However,  there  is  evidence  that  the  variability  in   outcomes  is  larger  within  same  SES  children  rather  than  between  different  SES  groups.   Programs  such  as  the  US  Head  Start  program  have  indeed  found  that  a  "one-­‐size-­‐fits-­‐ all"  approach  to  literacy  interventions  for  low  SES  young  children  can  be  ineffective  for   certain  sub  groups.  This  poses  several  challenges  and  questions  for  the  study  of  

language  and  literacy  development  of  children  from  low  SES  backgrounds  because  it   suggests  that  there  might  be  subgroups  within  low  SES  families  and  that  these  

subgroups  need  to  be  identified  in  order  for  interventions  or  policies  to  have  a  positive   effect.  At  the  same  time  the  question  arises:  what  environmental  factors  can  help   explain  these  large  differences  in  language  and  literacy  outcomes  within  children  of   similar  SES?  One  hypothesis  is  that  caregivers  with  similar  SES  vary  in  the  type  of   language  and  literacy  interactions  they  conduct  with  their  pre-­‐schooler  in  their  homes.   In  which  case,  the  question  that  emerges  is:  what  explains  these  variations  in  home   language  and  literacy  interactions?.  Potentially,  they  could  be  influenced  by  family  size   and  structure,  or  by  the  cultural  models  of  literacy  of  these  families  or  the  past  or   present  experiences  of  the  caregivers  themselves  with  literacy  or  by  fine  grained   within-­‐group  variations  in  SES.  More  research  is  needed  in  order  to  understand  this   within-­‐group  variability  of  children’s  language  and  literacy  outcomes  and  to  

acknowledge  the  connections  between  home  dimensions  and  children´s  language  and   literacy  development.  

Bronfenbrenner’s  theory  of  nested  systems  assumes  that  the  most  enduring  child   outcomes  occur  from  interventions  that  include  a  wide  spectre  of  people  and  settings   that  are  significant  in  the  child’s  life  (Wasik  et  al.,  2001).  However,  interventions  have   limited  resources  and  they  need  certain  intensity  in  order  to  be  effective.  Consequently   those  who  design  them  normally  have  to  choose  between  influencing  many  of  the   child’s  settings  with  little  intensity  and  influencing  a  few  of  the  child’s  settings  but  in   more  depth.  This  decision  should  be  informed  by  an  understanding  of  the  specific   characteristics  of  the  population  with  whom  the  intervention  takes  place:  that  is  by   understanding  the  environments  in  which  these  children  develop  and  the  mechanisms   that  affect  different  components  of  their  environment.  

This  thesis’  specific  studies,  (I  and  II),  will  provide  more  information  about  the  nature   of  the  HLLE  as  a  social  context  in  which  Chilean  low  SES  children’s  language  and   literacy  develops.  These  studies  also  explore  the  qualitative  differences  within  adult-­‐ child  interactions  of  Chilean  low  SES  backgrounds  and  the  implications  that  these   differences  have  for  literacy  development.    

Before  proceeding  to  the  results,  it  is  first  necessary  to  set  out  in  detail  the  methods   used  to  conduct  these  studies;  this  is  the  focus  of  the  following  chapter.