Developing Children's Literacy Learning Through Skillful Parent–Child Shared Book Readings

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine children’s reading performance and parents’ use of reading support strategies throughout their participation in a family literacy program. In the program sessions, parents learned strategies to promote discussions around reading and strategies to support children at the word level. The program occurred in a second-grade and third-grade classroom with a culturally and linguistically diverse student population. This case study, with multiple embedded units, focuses on four parent–child dyads who participated in the program. Audio recordings of the home readings were examined for parents’ strategy use across weeks, as well as changes in children’s reading performance. Analyses of audio recorded parent–child readings showed that parents used both discussion and oral reading strategies to support their children’s readings, and had various responses to the program training. Likewise, children showed gains in terms of reading rate, accuracy, and fluency as well as on independent reading measures, from the beginning of the program period to the end.