ABSTRACT
Part 3, Meeting Today's Challenges for Parents presents Chapter 11, Parents in a Supporting Role. This concluding chapter is dedicated to issues that can present challenges to parents as they support and encourage children to build literacy skills. The chapter is divided into eight sections, beginning with Section 1, a method for teaching children how to self-evaluate their own strengths, followed by Section 2, General guidelines for supporting all readers and writers. Sections 3–6 make a distinction between children who may be resistant or reluctant and children who are struggling to a degree that may require the intervention of specialists. All children may encounter patches where they become resistant and reluctant, and suggestions are given for both writing and reading in Sections 3 and 4. At the more concerning level of children who struggle, support strategies in Sections 5 and 6 are divided into grade levels to better meet the needs of these children. In Section 7, parents are advised about when it might be necessary to meet with the teacher or specific learning specialists at school. The final section, Section 8, offers questions parents should ask when they are considering the purchase or use of packaged instructional programs that are available either online or through commercial providers.
