Figure III-1: How Parents Can Strengthen their Children's Language and Literacy Development

  1. Parents can strengthen their children's language and literacy development and school-related competence by engaging in language-rich interactions with their children.
    • Engaging in frequent and increasingly complex verbal interactions
    • Actively participating in joint book reading or storytelling—including in the native language
    • Finding recommended book lists on the Internet (refer to Using Multicultural Children's Literature in Adult ESL Classes at http://cal-org.wdi.net/caela/digests/Kidlit.htm, and Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature at http://www.dawcl.com)
    • Posing questions that enhance their children's problem solving abilities
    • Participating in attentive interactions with their children
    • Promoting a predictable environment through routines
  2. Parents can provide support for literacy in the family.
    • Providing easy access to reading and writing materials including those in the native language
    • Modeling using reading and writing to get things done and solving problems in everyday life
    • Demonstrating enthusiasm for reading
  3. Parents can gain knowledge of their children's learning and development.
    • Seeing their children as active contributors to their own development
    • Becoming aware of their children's interests and abilities
    • Having appropriate expectations of their children's achievements
  4. Parents can strengthen their children's school-related competence.
    • Viewing their parenting role in a positive manner as they guide their children
    • Establishing and maintaining positive relations with community resources, including schools, community groups, and native language groups
    • Advocating for high-quality child and family resources in the community
    • Developing coping strategies for adapting to changes in family and community environments
(Adapted from Powell & D'Angelo, 2000.)

How to Develop a Parent Education Program

The first step in developing a parent education program is to find out what parents want to learn, and then decide how parents and staff can help develop appropriate parenting curricula. Each person has a role in this development. For example, program staff and parents can work together to:

  • Establish cultural diversity guidelines (such as respect for other opinions, ideas and ways of learning) for deciding what is taught and how it is taught.
  • Incorporate the native languages into the fabric of the classroom.
  • Develop culturally diverse content from a variety of different viewpoints and perspectives across the four components.