ABSTRACT

The practice of family literacy has occurred for generations, but the two words were not unified as a concept until 1983, when Denny Taylor published her dissertation, Family literacy: Young children learning to read and write. The purpose of her 1977 study was to “develop systematic ways of looking at reading and writing as activities that have consequences in and are affected by family life” (1983, p. xiii). Her groundbreaking ethnographic study carefully described the ways that families support the literacy development of their children and is considered to be the beginning of current research, practice, and interest in the area of family literacy.