What parents know and what parents need to know to foster preschool emergent literacy : a rural perspective

Young, Elizabeth Karen (1998) What parents know and what parents need to know to foster preschool emergent literacy : a rural perspective. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The purpose of the study was to synthesize the emergent literacy research on children's reading and writing abilities prior to formal schooling, to compare what parents know about emergent literacy to what is known in the field, and to use this comparison as a benchmark to identify relevant areas in which parents could be guided to enhance preschool emergent literacy development. -- The literature on the role of parents in fostering preschool emergent literacy was analyzed. The analysis of the literature focused specifically on literacy interactions between parents and children and how parents of early readers and writers engaged their children in literacy-related activities. Using these findings on parents who fostered positively their children's early literacy abilities, a questionnaire was designed to determine what parents know about and the extent to which they fostered preschool literacy development. Responses from seventeen preschool parents from rural Newfoundland were examined. Parental responses to each question were coded, tabulated, and analyzed for all 38 questions. -- Based on the literature reviewed, the research questions developed, and parents' responses, two main conclusions may be drawn: many parents know generally what they should be doing to promote their children's early literacy concepts and abilities but are less clear specifically on how to help them. Parents are providing books and writing materials in the home, reading to their children on a daily basis, and helping them to write the letters of the alphabet. However, this study reveals that parents need to be guided to interact more effectively with their children in the context of literacy and to make written language activities a part of their daily lives. -- Suggestions for consideration evolving from this study include schools and/or preschools (with support from other agencies) to share some of the responsibility to help parents of preschoolers to learn how to involve their children in literacy in an interactive manner, and to encourage parents to learn as much as they can about fostering preschool emergent literacy abilities.

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