Parent educators in family literacy settings have learned that there is a set of research-based strategies on how parents can strengthen their children’s language and literacy development. In the Practitioner Toolkit: Working with Adult English Language Learners published in 2004, the National Center for Family Literacy outlines research-based suggestions based on Powell and D’Angelo’s Guide to Improving Parenting Education in Even Start Family Literacy Programs including:

• Engage in language-rich interactions. Parents learn to engage in frequent and increasingly complex verbal interactions, participate in attentive interactions with their children, actively participate in joint book reading or storytelling (including in the native language), and promote a predictable environment through routines. See our web page about creating Personal Picture Books!

• Support literacy in the family. Parents learn to provide easy access to reading and writing materials including those in the native language, model using reading and writing to accomplish daily tasks, and demonstrate enthusiasm for reading.

• Learn about their children’s cognitive, literacy and developmental growth. Parents learn to see their children as active contributors to their own development, become aware of their children’s interests and abilities, and have appropriate expectations of their children’s achievements.

• Strengthen their children’s school-related competence. View their parenting role in a positive manner, establish and maintain positive relations with community entities including schools, advocate for high-quality community resources, and develop coping strategies for adapting to changes in their lives.

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