The document discusses a strategy for teachers to promote literacy development in students by encouraging parents to read with their child at home each day. It provides evidence from three sources - the National Education Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Reach Out and Read organization - that support how at-home reading promotes literacy, language development, higher test scores, and school achievement. The sources agree that reading proficiency and education outcomes are negatively impacted when children lack reading materials or opportunities to read at home.

1. Parent Involvement &
Literacy Development
Tiffany Harris
Psychology of Teaching and Learning
Kendall College

2. Strategy: Teachers promoting at-home reading with a
parent or family member each day.
This strategy promotes literacy, language development, comprehension, and higher
achievement in school.
Why I chose this strategy:
● Reading is a large part of my job. I spend countless hours reading to the
children I care for and I see how valuable it is for them, both developmentally
and also as a form of bonding.

3. Source One: National Education Association
An article on the National Education Association website titled, Facts about Children’s Literacy, compiled a list
of facts to support the claim that at-home reading promotes literacy, reading proficiency, and higher
achievement in school. One fact, provided by the Educational Testing Service, states that students who have a
wide variety of reading materials at home have higher reading proficiency. Additionally, the Educational
Testing Service also states that “students who do more reading at home are better readers and have higher math
scores.” Lastly, the NEA states:
“The substantial relationship between parent involvement for the school and reading comprehension levels of
fourth-grade classrooms is obvious, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Where parent involvement
is low, the classroom mean average (reading score) is 46 points below the national average. Where involvement
is high, classrooms score 28 points above the national average - a gap of 74 points. Even after controlling for
other attributes of communities, schools, principals, classes, and students, that might confound this
relationship, the gap is 44 points.”

4. Source Two: The American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics teamed up with Scholastic Inc., Reach out and Read, and an organization
called Too Small to Fail “to equip parents with tools to promote early literacy and vocabulary development.”
The article on the AAP website outlines why promoting at-home literacy at an early age is vital to ensuring
school readiness. The article states “numerous studies have shown that when pediatricians advise parents to
read together and provide the necessary tools, parents read more and come to cherish this child-centered time,
and their children enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills.” Teachers can use
this same strategy to promote literacy proficiency, comprehension, and overall success in school after a child
has begun their education.
The article also used a quote from James M. Perrin, MD, FAAP, who is the president of the AAP, that reads:
“Reading with young children is a joyful way to build strong and healthy parent-child relationships, to foster
early language skills and to promote children's development.”

5. Source Three: Reach out and Read
An article on the Reach out and Read website outlines the importance of parents reading to children as well as the
detrimental effects that can occur if children don’t have access to reading materials or aren’t given enough opportunities to
read and be read to. Below are several excerpts from the article.
“Reading aloud is widely recognized as the single most important activity leading to language development. Among other
things, reading aloud builds word-sound awareness in children, a potent predictor of reading success.”
"Children who fall seriously behind in the growth of critical early reading skills have fewer opportunities to practice
reading. Evidence suggests that these lost practice opportunities make it extremely difficult for children who remain poor
readers during the first three years of elementary school to ever acquire average levels of reading fluency." Torgeson, J.
Avoiding the Devastating Downward Spiral, American Educator. (2004)
“The nurturing and one-on-one attention from parents during reading aloud encourages children to form a positive
association with books and reading later in life.”
“Once children start school, difficulty with reading contributes to school failure, which can increase the risk of
absenteeism, leaving school, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, and teenage pregnancy - all of which can perpetuate
the cycles of poverty and dependency.”

6. Analysis:
Compare:
All sources are advocating for reading at home
and discussing the many benefits of children
being read to by their parents.
All sources discuss the negative effects of a lack
of reading materials and opportunities to
read or be read to.
Contrast:
All three sources are different in nature. The
American Academy of Pediatrics is an
association of pediatricians, while Reach and
out and Read is a non-profit organization
geared toward childhood literacy. And the
National Education association is a labor
union.
The AAP discusses the importance of
pediatricians promoting literacy during
office visits, while the NEA and Reach out
and Read do not mention reading being
promoted by a persson of any profession.

7. Connections:
There are several connections between reading and cognitive development. One, from Woolfolk (2016) states:
“Brain imaging research is revealing interesting differences among skilled and less-skilled readers as they learn
new vocabulary. For example, one imaging study showed that less-skilled readers had trouble establishing high-
quality representations of new vocabulary words in their brains, as indicated by ERP measurements of electrical
activity of the brain. When they encountered the new word later, less-skilled readers’ brains often didn’t
recognize that they had seen the word before, even though they had learned the words in an earlier lesson.
By encouraging parents to read to their children everyday, they’re promoting cognitive development.

8. Conclusions:
Information from Woolfolk (2016) provides evidence that having parents read to their children promote
literacy and language development. Woolfolk (2016) remarks that one of the two activities related to emergent
literacy skills is: “joint reading, using books as supports for talk about sounds, words, pictures, and concepts
(NICHD Early Childhood Research Network, 2005a). Woolfolk (2016) goes on to say “Especially in the early
years, the children’s home experiences are central in the development of language and literacy (Lonigan, Farver,
Nakamoto, & Eppe, 2013; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002).” Additionally, Woolfolk (2016) states:
“Childcare workers and teachers can help. In a study that followed almost 300 low-income children from
kindergarten to fifth grade, researchers found that the more families were involved with the school, the better
their children’s literacy development. School involvement was especially valuable when mothers had less
education themselves (Dearing, Kreider, Simpkins, & Weiss, 2016).

9. Communication
If a parent or guardian were to ask about this strategy I would explain it to them as
follows:
“I understand you have some questions about being involved in your child’s literacy by
promoting it at home and reading to your child each day. Literacy is always going to be
a large part of your child’s education and the more proficient they are, the better.
Additionally, when children see that their family members are interested and involved
their education, they’re more inclined to learn and typically achieve more in school. To
help your child reach their full potential and be successful in school I think it’s best if
we all work as a team and incorporate plenty of reading both at school and at home.”

10. References
American Academy of Pediatrics (2014). Business, Medical,
and Non-Profit Partners Launch New National Effort at
CGI America to Help Close the Word Gap. Retrieved 12,
August, 2016, from https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-
aap/aap-press-room/Pages/Business,-Medical,-and-Non-
Profit-Partners-Launch-New-National-Effort--at-CGI-
America-to-Help-Close-the-Word-Gap.aspx
Dearing, E., Kreider, H., Simpkins, S., & Weiss, H.B. (2006).
Family involvement in school and low-income children’s
literacy: Longitudinal associations between and within
families. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 653-664.
Lonigan, C.J., Farver, J.M., Nakamoto, J., & Eppe, S. (2013).
Developmental trajectories or preschool early literacy skills:
A comparison of language-minority and monolingual-
English children. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1943-1957.
Reach out and Read (2016). Importance of Reading Aloud:
Giving young children a foundation for success. Retrieved
12, August, 2016, from
http://www.reachoutandread.org/why-we-work/importance-
of-reading-aloud/
National Education Association (2016). Facts about
Children’s Literacy. Retrieved 12, August, 2016, from
http://www.nea.org/grants/facts-about-childrens-
literacy.html
Sénéchal, M., & LeFevre, J.A. (2002). Parental involvement
in the development of children’s reading skills: A five-year
longitudinal study. Child Development, 73, 445-460.
Woolfolk, A., (2016) Educational Psychology (13th ed.).
Boston, Ma. Pearson