Early literacy among Arabic-speaking kindergartners: The role of socioeconomic status, home literacy environment and maternal mediation of writing

► The study explored the sociocultural context of early literacy development among Arabic-speaking kindergartners in Israel. ► It focused on the nature of mother-child joint writing in Arabic - a diglossic language with a complex orthography. ► Hierarchical regressions indicated that Home Literacy Environment (HLE) predicted children's early literacy beyond SES. ► Maternal mediation of writing predicted children's early literacy after controlling for SES and HLE. ► Discussion depicts mother-child writing interactions as a possible context for early literacy enhancement among young Arabic-speaking children.