Modeling Literate Behaviours

Parental attitudes are important to promote literacy achievement. The parents participating in this study were all verbally supportive of learning efforts which would promote literacy, but the findings suggest that they were not modeling "school ways" and preparing their children for school literacy in the same way as the middle class parents might. While Snow and Tabors (1996) acknowledge that transfer of literacy skills explanations could account for social class differences in the skills of children prior to school entry, they emphasize that literacy consists of much more than the print skills that can be transferred during book–reading, attention to ambient print, or collaborations on early writing tasks. Furthermore, they are quick to point out that many children who have not learned their letters or had limited exposure to print prior to school entry will become successful readers.

The findings reveal that some of the low-income parents are afraid of doing things the wrong way and worried about confusing the child or the teacher becoming angry with them. Horsman (1999) explained in her study that such fearful behaviour could be from violent and traumatic past experiences, as opposed to an unwillingness to try or laziness. Based on Horsman's findings, and the stories told by the parents, it is conceivable that they indeed were acting in this manner because of past trauma in their lives.

Snow and Tabors (1996) searched among assorted explanations for parental effects on their children's level of preparedness for school literacy. Their goal was to account for children's varying levels upon school entry. They were also interested in learning how some families continue to support their children's literacy achievement after the emergent literacy level as the children progress in elementary school. Snow and Tabors (1996) went beyond the simplistic commonly held belief that social class differences account for differing results. They argued how difficult it is to sort out the effects of the many related factors involved in defining social class, including parental education, occupational status, income, housing conditions, time allocation, attitudes toward school and schooling, experiences with school, expectations for future educational and occupational success, nature of the family's social network, style of parent-child interaction, and many more elements (Snow & Tabors, 1996, ¶ 4).