This study extends the research on the preschool home literacy environment (HLE) in the context of the family risk (FR) of reading disability (RD) by examining a multiple-deficit model of RD. A total of 1,171 six-year-old Norwegian children were assessed at school entry, the onset of formal reading instruction in Norway. Their parents completed a questionnaire regarding their own RD, education, and the HLE. The final sample after applying the inclusion criteria was 794 children and their parents. The findings suggest, first, that two HLE factors (access to print and reading-related activities) should be distinguished rather than treated as a single factor (“exposure to print”) as the majority of previous studies have done. This finding suggests a three-factor HLE model that includes parents’ reading interests and habits, reading-related activities, and access to print. Second, family risk of RD is related to some extent to the HLE, even after controlling for parents’ education. Third, children’s experiences in their home environments and their emergent literacy may not be independent of their family risk of RD. More importantly, this study highlights the potential protective role of the HLE, especially when there is a history of RD within the family. The reason is that the positive association between the HLE and children’s code-related emergent literacy remains significant when controlling for family risk of RD (access to print → emergent literacy: 0.39 [0.01, 0.68], p < 0.01; reading-related activities → emergent literacy: 0.37 [0.02, 0.35], p < 0.01; parents’ reading interests and habits → emergent literacy: 0.26 [0.001, 0.15], p < 0.01). This finding supports that children’s emergent literacy can be improved via a modifiable, dynamic factor such as the HLE.

This systematic scoping review aimed to identify and describe published peer-reviewed research articles on the transition of under-3-year-old children from home to early childhood education and care (ECEC) from 1 January 2013 to 19 August 2024. Both national (Idunn, Libris, Oria) and international (Academic Search Premier, ERIC, PsycInfo, Scopus, Web of Science) databases were systematically searched for relevant studies in English, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. A total of 20 studies met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. The results show that the number of publications fluctuated from January 2013 to August 2024. Finland was the most represented country in the different studies, and by continent, most studies were published in Europe. The studies included diverse methodologies, such as descriptive purposes or studies exploring relationships between concepts. Eleven studies used a longitudinal design. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were represented, and data were collected from multiple informants. The studies examined multiple concepts, such as children’s adaptive behavior during the transition, the ECEC process and structural quality, child characteristics, stress, and parents’ roles and experiences. The results of this review contribute to identifying research gaps and what future research can do to increase knowledge about this topic.

In the contemporary world, digital competence is increasingly viewed as a precondition of individuals’ ability to participate in and contribute actively to society. At the same time, across the Nor...