Analysis of Home Literacy Environment in Chilean Families of Children with Down Syndrome

Home Literacy Environment (HLE) plays a fundamental role in the development of reading and writing skills in children. Evidence suggests differences in HLE components based on cultural and idiosyncratic characteristics. Most studies show a relationship between contextual variables with the quality of HLE in typically developing (TD) children. There are HLE studies with families of children with Down syndrome (DS) that show similar results, but the characteristics of HLE for Latin-American families of children with DS remain unexplored. This study analyses the HLE in a group of 161 families of children with DS, between 3 and 12 years of age, living in urban areas of Chile. Data were collected using an online survey. Results showed differences on the amount of literacy materials, linguistic environment, and beliefs and expectations of parents. Better HLE was observed in families with parents with high educational levels. In the context of previous studies from developed countries with families of children with DS and from Chile with families of TD children, the HLE of families with children with DS in Chile seems poor. This descriptive evidence is necessary to raise concerns in policy makers and national funding agencies to open a way to conduct experimental studies.