By Jennifer van Pelt

What is Family Literacy?

Family Literacy is a type of literacy education that emphasizes bringing reading and writing into the home and making it a family activity. According to a study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, children with a “richer home literacy environment displayed higher levels of reading knowledge and skills than did their counterparts with less rich home literacy environments.” Family literacy is imperative in creating a foundation for children’s learning experiences, and it all starts with the parents.

Illiteracy in today’s children can be traced back to their parent's literacy experiences in their early lives. When parents do not feel comfortable around books, they don’t read to their children and they likely don’t have many books in the house for their children to look at or read themselves. This is why family literacy programs emphasize teaching families together and ensuring that the parents understand the importance of reading outside of a school environment. It’s not just about reading though -- in the same study by the NCES, singing songs and telling stories to children can also lead to early reading success.

What is Family Literacy?

A picture of a parent and child working together on an exercise in our Family Literacy Program. The child is sitting on top of the table while working, showing how we emphasize play and comfort in literacy education!

Parents: A Child’s First Teacher

As mentioned by the Urban Child Institute, a child’s brain develops at a rapid rate during their early life. By age 3, the brain has reached 80% of its adult size. Developmental experiences in these years determine the organizational and functional status of the mature brain. This is an important time in a child’s life to talk to them, look at pictures, and read books with them so they get as much exposure as they can before they begin formalized school. Parents teach their child how to navigate the world, and when parents take time to do these things, they are teaching them healthy reading habits for life.

In the earliest stages of a child’s life, the parents don’t need high literacy to teach their kids a love of books. Just asking the child to use their imagination and create a storyline for the book themselves, teaching them various sounds, and asking them questions can help develop important habits surrounding literacy. When the families make this a routine and enjoy these activities together, the building blocks of early reading success are being set up.

Another example of teaching with play! Two students learn terms like "through" by crawling through a tunnel at one of our Family Literacy sites.

Healthy Reading Habits At Home

Now that we understand the importance of family literacy, here are some ideas to help build reading and literacy components into your family’s daily life. These are based off some of the key indicators of our own Family Literacy Program:

Let your child see you reading.
Read more than books together -- read road signs, nutritional labels, etc.
Let your child pick out the books you read together.
Visit the library together.
Ask your child questions about the books or pictures.
Relate the book to your child’s life.
Sing songs and rhymes together with your child.

The Family Literacy program that Words Alive runs has demonstrated an 87% increase in the percentage of families who look at books together at home by the end of the 7 week program. This incorporation of books into the home is important when looking at future reading and literacy success. If you are curious to learn more about our Family Literacy Program and what it has to offer, the program is running right now! Head to our main website to find out more about volunteering with us or joining our Family Literacy workshops.

Sources:

http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/articles/research-to-policy/practice/parents-are-a-childs-first-teacher

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003067_6.pdf

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By Jennifer Van Pelt

“Literacy is not a luxury, it is a right and a responsibility. If our world is to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century we must harness the energy and creativity of all our citizens.” (Bill Clinton, 1994)

Nearly 25 years ago, the President of the United States recognized the importance of literacy and the opportunity literacy provides not only individuals, but whole communities. In 2017, according to The Nation’s Report Card, only 36% of 4th graders in the United States were at a proficient reading level or above. These children are not the start of the cycle of illiteracy, but a continuation of the environment they were brought up in that didn’t prioritize reading -- often times because their parents were illiterate. This means these children weren’t read aloud to at home, they likely didn’t have any books in their house, and homework was a lone task. Studies have shown that 1 in 7 adults in America are considered functionally illiterate, which has the potential to trickle down to our youth.

What Does Illiteracy Really Mean?

Source: Words Alive; A graphic that says: "Literacy is the foundation of community and economic development. When everyone can read, whole communities thrive."

Being able to read is more than being able to escape into a book and be transported to a different decade or world. Illiteracy means that one can lack the skills necessary to read the dosage/warnings on medicine bottles, follow cooking instructions, properly manage finances, or apply for jobs that allow one to live above the poverty line. The cost of Illiteracy in the United States is estimated to be over 300 billion dollars, according to a report written by the World Literacy Foundation. In the same report, it is said to cost the global economy 1.2 trillion dollars.

How Do Other People’s Reading Abilities Affect the Economic Development of Your Community?

Perhaps one of the clearest ways to explain how literacy affects the economics of whole communities is illustrated by the correlation between literacy rates and prisons: 3 out of 5 inmates in United States prisons cannot read. Not only does this have an impact on the communities and families of these individuals, but taxpayers are paying for these prisons and all of the maintenance and costs they come with.

Health has also been shown to be affected by literacy rates. There have been multiple studies showing a correlation between communities with high literacy rates and lower infant mortality rates. The idea being that literate adults have increased ability and knowledge to seek out medical treatment for themselves and their families, as well as a difference in their reproductive behavior -- including increased contraceptive use. This results in more proactive visits to the doctor, generally at a lower cost, as opposed to high cost emergency visits.

For those with low literacy, it is often a struggle to obtain jobs that pay above a living wage. Furthermore, once they are in these jobs, it is difficult to be promoted or get a pay raise, vastly limiting their job mobility. This means that these employees will have more difficulties supporting their families and are more likely to depend on supplemental means of doing so such as welfare or food stamps.

According to a study conducted by Betty Hart and Todd Risley, there is a 30 million word gap between children in low-income families and children from higher income families. The report outlines their findings that an average child in a higher income family will experience nearly 45 millions words by the time they are 4 years old, compared to the 13 million words that an average child who lives in a low-income family will hear. Not only does this demonstrate the economic impact that illiteracy has on families, but also the continuous cycle of low literacy it creates.

The Connection Between Literacy and Politics

How can one be expected the equal opportunity to make a decision in upcoming elections when they aren’t provided with this information in a format that benefits them? In other words, how can you vote and advocate for yourself if you are unable to read voting information and instructions? Thirty-second commercials provide limited information, while the multitude of pamphlets and voting materials give the option to make a more educated choice. When the people of our communities are given the opportunity to obtain this info through multiple venues, they are more able to advocate for themselves and participate in causes they believe in.

When Everyone Can Read, Whole Communities Thrive

Communities built on a foundation of literacy will allow the creativity and energy of more voices to be heard and change our communities for the better through civic engagement, lessened costs (such as to our prison and healthcare systems), and a healthier society. The first step to beating illiteracy is right at your fingertips: get involved with local outreach groups, volunteer for literacy organizations (like Words Alive!), and donate books to schools, libraries, and other organizations that need them -- because illiteracy is 100% preventable.

You can help Words Alive connect students and families to the power of reading, so our communities can thrive, by making a $25 donation today. Click here!

Sources:

http://www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/full/chapt5_eng.pdf

https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/WLF-FINAL-ECONOMIC-REPORT.pdf

https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/ToRead.pdf

http://media.wix.com/ugd/43406c_4ff5b27838a75af1e0ccd1cf55632342.pdf

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/

https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/TheEarlyCatastrophe.pdf

The Importance of Family Literacy

What is the Connection Between Literacy and Economic Development?