You'll explore both the home and school environments of children at ages 3, 4, and 5 and see how families talk to their young children during everyday activities like book reading, toy play, and mealtimes. You'll also examine children's conversations throughout the classroom day and consider how teachers strive to support children's development. In each chapter, you'll

• see how the data was collected
• read actual transcripts of parent-child and teacher-child interactions
• recognize how these interactions relate to later development
• get suggestions for supporting children's language and literacy development
• learn how these findings play out in the lives of four of the children in the study

Find out how young children's home and classroom experiences during the preschool years are related to their kindergarten language and literacy skills, and discover the kinds of conversations that make a difference.