The research collected in this new issue seeks to identify which aspects of family literacy environments promote children's emerging literacy and which experiences in the home facilitate the development of children's literacy skills. This issue presents an innovative model of emergent literacy in which written language, at all levels of specificity, is at the center of the construct of emergent literacy. In addition, studies presented in this issue highlight the association between child and family literacy across age and socioeconomic background. These studies demonstrate the specificity of associations between family literacy environments and young children's emerging literacy skills, showing that the particular type of literacy interaction influences the particular literacy skill being developed.

This is the 92nd issue of the Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development.