The recent term ‘home literacy environment’ has generally referred to participation in literacy-
related activities relegated to availability of print material and frequency of reading (Leseman and
de Jong, 1998). Saracho (1997a) proposed that parent’s literacy level and the availability of
reading materials worked together as the primary characteristics of the home environment that
related to a child’s literacy development. Other research has extended the scope of the home
literacy environment (Christian, Morrison, and Bryant, 1998; Griffin and Morrison, 1997; Payne,
Whitehurst, and Angell, 1994) to include such variables as the age of the child when joint reading
began, independent child or caregiver reading, and frequency of behaviours that interfered with
reading (for example, television viewing).