Parental support of emergent literacy in the final preschool year in Austria during COVID-19-induced lockdowns

Abstract

ABSTRACT The support of emergent literacy skills in preschool children has been considered highly important for the development of children’s competencies and their academic success in school. In addition to parents, preschool teachers are expected to support children’s emergent literacy skills with educational activities; this is specifically true for underperforming children. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding lockdowns, closures, and emergency care for preschool children impeded the development of children’s emergent literacy skills. As a result, parental support for children’s emergent literacy skills has come under scrutiny. With reference to Austria, the study aims to gain insights into parents’ self-reported perspectives on their implementation of behaviours to support emergent literacy skills and their justifications for their support or non-support during COVID-19-induced lockdowns through nine semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that the parents interviewed indicated to support emergent literacy actively, passively, or hardly at all. Justifications referred to children’s interest but also to reservations about whether preschool is too early to focus on literacy emergence. The study may provide hints for pedagogical work in preschools in post-COVID-19 times.