Title

Family Involvement and Early Literacy Development

Author

Jennifer Ready, Concordia University, St. Paul

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Non Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Education

Program

Early Childhood Education

Capstone Instructor

Cecelia Westby

Second Reader

Carmen Cook

Keywords

emergent literacy, parent involvement, qualitative study

Abstract

Families can play an important role in young children's development. Specifically, emerging literacy skills can be increased through the involvement of families. Included in this document is a review of the literature, which shows strong support for involving families in the literacy development of young children. The purpose behind the study described in this document is to discover whether families can have a significant impact on their child's literacy development. The study was conducted over a three month time period and included a total of sixteen children who were five years of age. All sixteen children were enrolled in the same preschool program. Literacy skills for eight of the children were assessed solely on classroom involvement. The other eight children were assessed based on family participation in the study. In this study family involvement took place within the home through the use of literacy kits. These literacy kits were designed to increase young children's emerging literacy skills. The results from the pre and post-tests that were administered showed that families can significantly impact their child's literacy development through the use of literacy kits.

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