ABSTRACT
Parenting education holds significant potential for maximizing the benefits of family literacy programs. A growing body of research points to the powerful influences of parents on the development of children’s literacy and school-related competence. Two recentmajor reports include guidelines for family support of children’s literacy development. The National Research Council, in its report titled Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, recommends that home and preschool activities include adult-child shared book reading (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Shared book reading stimulates verbal interaction to enhance language development and knowledge about print concepts. The report also recommends activities that direct young children’s attention to the phonological structure of spoken words and that highlight the relations between print and speech. A position statement on children’s learning to read and write, developed by the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (1998), includes illustrative practices for parents and family members to support children’s development in early reading and writing from preschool through third grade. Appropriately, parenting education is viewed as a key ingredient for facilitating children’s early literacy development in family literacy programs, including the Even Start Family Literacy Program (Powell & D’Angelo, 2000).
