Natalie confesses that she is somewhat of a perfectionist and adds, "But I gotta do my end table this summer though…I'm gonna strip it down and make it the same colour as my cupboards because it's darker…It doesn't match. It's gotta be just a certain way."

These families have a multitude of opportunities to facilitate naturalistic learning in the course of their daily lives. However, they often do not seem to be familiar with the learning potential of their daily activities and therefore they do not capitalize on them as opportunities to stimulate learning and literacy development in their children. For example, by restricting children from participating in household activities that would push them to use their literacy skills and develop their language, the parents' actions may unintentionally serve to limit potential possibilities for learning.

Another apparent problem is that some of these parents do not have adequate skills to be able to fully capitalize on the learning potential. These include their own literacy skills, and knowledge of how to establish healthy routines for sleeping, eating properly, and balancing schoolwork and leisure activities. They may lack reliable transportation to allow them to take advantage of grocery store sales and face financial restrictions in terms of the food they purchase and the leisure activities they can pursue. These topics will be highlighted in the sections that follow.

Support for literacy skills.

As discussed, the parents have the potential to use their personal resources and practical skills to support their children's learning, in particular their language development and literacy skills, throughout their regular activities. The likelihood that some of these parents do not possess the literacy skills in sufficient measure to help their children with some of the schoolwork, however, must be considered. Beth's husband, Doug, openly announced that he was enrolled in a special education program in his childhood and he has not achieved a high level of literacy.