Literacy Experiences at Home

The importance of the family in fostering literacy development has been outlined previously. It is well recognized that literacy at home may contribute to success in socializing children into a literate world and in achieving family goals. Families have multiple approaches to literacy and ways to use literacy to deal with life events. Leichter (1984) found that families contribute to literacy development in three ways: by participating in interpersonal interactions; by organizing the physical environment; and in setting the emotional and motivational climate. Together, these three categories offer a useful and inclusive framework for facilitating the organization of the data for describing literacy experiences at home and the ways in which parents socialize their children to literacy.

Leichter (1984) believes in viewing families as environments for literacy and acknowledges that all families, including those that are financially disadvantaged, have a culture of learning. In contrast to many other theorists who advocate a deficit model of family literacy, she does not suggest trying to fix families and allows room for variability in how families perceive and attain literacy. This is consistent with the approach I take in this study in which I acknowledge the naturally occurring events of everyday lives and allow the voices of parents to be highlighted.

Interpersonal Interactions

All children in this study have exposure to some form of literacy within their homes and through interactions with their parents and other family members. The literacy experiences shared with the children by family members are varied. The journals kept by the mothers provide a glimpse into the lives of the families and the types of literacy activities in which they engage. As outlined in Chapter 3, the parents were interviewed after the journals were collected to elaborate on their responses and to determine their attitudes, perceptions and opinions on learning and literacy development. The videotaped segments also provide valuable information on how the parents interact and respond to their children in real life situations.