Code-Related Activities and Their Association With Early Literacy Skills: A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis

Literacy skills are acquired during childhood through ‘code-related activities’, which are interactions and practices that directly engage children with written words. This study presents a scoping review and meta-analysis of 18 peer-reviewed articles that explore the relationship between these code-related activities and early literacy skills. The analysis revealed a diverse range of samples, with participants from 12 countries speaking 10 different languages. However, many studies exhibited significant gaps in demographic information, omitting crucial details such as socioeconomic status, the number of languages spoken by children, the presence of disabilities, and which parent participated in the study. All studies utilised questionnaires to gather data; however, the content of these instruments varied significantly and often focused on limited reading resources. Despite these limitations, a small but significant positive correlation was found between code-related activities and early literacy skills. The analysis also highlighted high heterogeneity and potential bias, which may be attributed to inconsistencies in measurement across the studies. In conclusion, while there is evidence suggesting a link between code-related activities and early literacy skills, more thorough and comprehensive research is needed to better understand the influence of the home literacy environment. Future studies should aim to address the existing demographic and methodological gaps to provide a clearer picture of this relationship across diverse populations.