Parents have been identified as children’s first teachers, and they continue to play a critical role throughout students’ educational careers (Parker & Reid, 2017).
Many experts believe all parents have the ability to have a positive influence on their child’s education (Parker & Reid, 2017). They can even be effective in providing academic interventions when students are not in school, and are important partners in their child’s education (Pagan & Sénéchal, 2014).
Many parents begin reading books to their children starting at a young age, which is important since children who are frequently read to by their parents are more likely to have increased vocabulary knowledge (Pagan & Sénéchal, 2014).
In addition to reading to their children, many parents also explicitly teach literacy skills (Pagan & Sénéchal, 2014). Parents who frequently teach literacy skills have children who develop early literacy skills, and emerge into fluent readers (Pagan & Sénéchal, 2014).
Parents also have the ability to simply inspire their children to read (Lundstrom, 2005). This is important because as Padak and Rasinski (2007) explain, “Children whose families encourage at-home literacy activities have higher phonemic-awareness and decoding skills, higher reading achievement in the elementary grades, and advanced oral language development” (p. 350). Parents who encourage at-home literacy have the power to ensure students maintain their reading skills over the summer, and continue their learning when school resumes (Parker & Reid, 2017).
Parents’ Self-Efficacy
Many parents are not confident in their abilities to support their young readers, and believe teachers are equipped with special skills they do not possess (Becknel et al., 2017).
Some parents are uncertain about their own reading abilities making it difficult for them to support their children (Becknel et al., 2017). This is especially true for many parents who speak English as a second language, who may be unsure of how to correctly pronounce certain words in English (Compton-Lilly et al., 2017).
While it may be the case that some parents are doubtful of their abilities to support their children’s reading development, most parents who participated in a summer reading program were highly motivated to support their children, even if they were unsure of the best ways to do so (Campton-Lilly et al.,2017) .
Supporting Parents
Parent support, or scaffolding, may be the key to a successful summer reading program (Kim & White, 2011; White & Kim, 2008).
While parent involvement is critical, especially during the summer, schools cannot assume parents are aware of the best ways to support their children’s learning at home (Parker & Reid, 2017). Instead, most parents need, and want specific suggestions (Lundstrom, 2005; Mraz & Rasinski, 2007; Padak & Rasinski, 2007).
Parents, especially those from low-income backgrounds “need to be offered concrete, specific programs and suggestions on how to participate in family literacy” (Mraz & Rasinski, 2007, p. 786).
One of the most effective ways for parents to support children’s literacy development is by reading to them (Padak & Rasinski, 2007). The practice of reading aloud to children is so beneficial it should continue even when children are able to read independently, and while reading to children at bedtime is valuable, this is not the only option (Padak & Rasinski, 2007). Parents can read aloud from the newspaper, or point out print in the environment such as food labels, shopping lists, bumper stickers, and signs on streets, restaurants and stores (Mraz & Rasinski, 2007; Padak & Rasinski, 2007).
Another strategy parents can utilize to support the development of young readers is paired reading, or reading with children (Padak & Rasinski, 2007; Pagan & Sénéchal, 2014). With this method, parents and children can alternate reading pages or paragraphs (Padak & Rasinski, 2007). Parents should also encourage their children to read independently, which could include reading aloud to an adult, a sibling, a pet, or even a stuffed animal (Kim & White, 2008; Pagan & Sénéchal, 2014).
Research also supports the idea of parents acting as positive reading role models with findings indicating that “Students who see adults reading daily or weekly tend to read more and have higher reading scores than those who don’t” (Lundstrom, 2005, p. 22).
While parents generally focus on reading accuracy with supporting young readers, comprehension should not be overlooked (Compton-Lilly et al., 2016; Mraz & Rasinski, 2007). Mraz and Rasinski (2007) recommend talking to children about what they are reading and asking open-ended questions.
See the Resources for Families page for ideas to share with parents for supporting literacy at home during the summer and beyond.