Parent Literacy

Parent Literacy

Parents play a crucial role in supporting children’s literacy, especially in the first years of school. However, parents can find this challenging if they struggle with reading themselves. This project explores whether family learning phonics courses boost parents’ reading-related skills and ability to support their children’s reading. The project was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant. This research was conducted by Dr. Rachael Hulme (Research Fellow), Charlotte Webber (Research Assistant in 2019-2020), Amy Fox (Research Coordinator in 2019-2020), Dr. Laura Shapiro, Dr. Jessie Ricketts, and Dr. Jo Taylor (Principal Investigator), in collaboration with the National Family Learning Forum.

Key findings:

• Family learning phonics courses can improve crucial phonics skills (letter-sound knowledge) and increase the amount parents support their child with reading.

• Some reading-related skills (phonological awareness, whole word reading, and decoding) are slower to improve and may require longer-term support.

• These courses should be available to all parents who may struggle to support their children’s literacy development.

Click here to see a poster summary of the key findings from this project.