Home-based educators play an important role in family literacy programs by reaching families in their homes. Donna Bryant and Barbara Wasik of the Center for Home Visiting at the University of North Carolina have outlined in “Home Visiting and Family Literacy Programs” found in the “Handbook of Family Literacy” (ed. Wasik, 2004) the advantages of home visiting as an approach for helping families support language and literacy development in their children.

The home is where early literacy skills are developed.
Researchers have concluded that interactions among family members and physical resources such as literacy materials influence early literacy development. Young children, even those who attend day care or preschool, spend most of their waking hours at home. The home is where most of their emergent literacy skills develop.

Individualized intervention for parents.
Typically parents in family literacy programs attend group parenting classes. Home visits allow parent educators the opportunity to work with parents on a one-to-one basis to focus on their individual needs and concerns regarding their child(ren)’s development.

Observe parent-child interactions.
In the home, the home-based educator has the opportunity to observe parent and child interactions and encourage and build on these interactions.

Strengthen tie between center-based program and the home.
Home-based educators can reinforce information shared at parent group meetings and assess parents’ understanding of a topic. In addition it gives the staff person and parent the opportunity to discuss barriers for participating in center-based activities, thereby encouraging full participation.

Home visits take educators into the community.
By visiting families in their homes, educators become aware of resources and activities available to the community. They learn about libraries, parks, community centers and the quality of public transportation.

Practical reasons for home-based education.
Families with limited transportation may be more likely to participate in a program that brings services to them. As a family experiences stress the likelihood that they will venture out to attend center-based activities becomes reduced. Offering home-based activities can act as a bridge to remain in contact with these families.

For further reading, please refer to the Home-based Instruction Resources where you can find multiple online and offline publications, web sites and books dedicated to research-based principles for parent education.