Family Literacy Programmes

Abstract

Much research has demonstrated that the home environment serves as an important influence in the development of literacy skills in young children. What parents do, (or fail to do) has a lasting impact on their child’s reading skill and literacy. Knowledge and literacy events are constructed differently across families and vary depending on culture and social class. All families can be understood as cultural groups constructing their own views of literacy and what it means to be literate. The original aim of family literacy programmes was to work with parents in an effort to positively influence their abilities to support their children s literacy development. In intergenerationalfamily literacy programmes direct literacy instruction is given to more than one generation of family members to improve their literacy skills. The home-school or home-library connection has traditionally been viewed as a process through which the school and library transmit information to parents regarding how they can best help their children at home to progress academically. This one-way transmission model has been shown to be effective in improving many aspects of children s literacy development, but the two-way communication model seems to be even more powerful. This position stresses the value of parents 'knowledge about their own children — how they learn the best, the types of activities they engage in at home, their feelings about school and learning. In this latter perspective, both families and schools can be viewed as collaborating partners, each bringing its own area of expertise to facilitate the child’s development.