ABSTRACT
How should the child’s language development in the home impact literacy learning in school? Parents who examine their children’s language learning are in a position to monitor and support their children’s school experiences, and to impact the ways in which the school envisions and supports literacy:
in the family: the child is immersed in the culture and how it makes use of language and other sign systems
in school: varied assumptions concerning language, learning, and literacy meet and compete
The school is charged with developing literacy. Here we are defining literacy as the conscious use of the oral and written experiences of a range of sign systems.