Children's Literacy Development

Catherine McBride is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science, Purdue University, Indiana, US. She has served as President of the international Society for the Scientific Study of Reading and Founding President of the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia. Her research focuses on learning to read and write from a developmental perspective, across cultures, languages, and scripts.

“The author provides state-of-the-art insights into cultural, linguistic, and educational contexts in which children succeed in (or indeed struggle with) learning to read and write worldwide. She has a profound understanding of the Science of Reading and gives a multitude of illustrative examples. The book is highly informative to students and practitioners who are interested in literacy development.”Karin Landerl, Professor of Developmental Psychology, University of Graz, Austria“I am thrilled that Dr McBride has updated her text on children’s reading development. I’ve long used it in my undergraduate teaching and as an introductory text for my own graduate students. It has always provided comprehensible and readable introductions to the core factors that determine reading development, and it has done so in an international context, covering research across a range of languages. This new edition has updated reviews on those classic predictors, and also incorporated reviews on current topics, such as the influence of both COVID-19 pandemic and digitalization on reading development. I’m excited to be able to use this new text in my teaching and mentoring!”S. Hélène Deacon, University Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Canada“This book is an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand the foundational aspects of literacy skill development. It provides a comprehensive review of literature across diverse languages and writing systems, recognizing the richness and complexity of developing literacy skills.”Young-Suk Grace Kim, Professor, School of Education, University of California—Irvine“This is a uniquely important book that combines an insightful and superbly informed analysis of both reading and writing across languages and scripts. It is a tremendous resource for professionals and families alike.”Richard K. Wagner, Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Florida State University

• 1. An ecological approach to literacy development 2. The development of sound, phonological sensitivity, and language for reading and writing 3. Building blocks of reading 4. The role of morphological awareness in learning to read and to write (spell) 5. Visual and orthographic skills in reading and writing 6. Dyslexia 7. Reading comprehension 8. Writing: spelling and higher-order processes 9. Approaches to teaching reading 10. Multiliteracy and Multilingualism 11. The impact of digital technology on children’s literacy development 12. Where do we go from here?