How are parents engaged in children's reading and what are the implications for educational psychologists?

Abstract

Learning to read is a fundamental, social and interactive process, which begins at home (Al-Momani, Ihmeideh, & Naba'h, 2010). Research generally supports the role of parents and the home literacy environment for children’s reading gains (Foy & Mann, 2003; Loera, Rueda, & Nakamoto, 2011; Sénéchal, 2006), and it is recognised that parents are influential in fostering their children’s early reading skills (Ladd, Martin-Chang, & Levesque, 2011). The aim of this paper is to further explore the role of parents in children’s reading, whilst considering the implications for Educational Psychologists. It consists of three main parts: 1. A systematic literature review (SLR) investigating the effects of parent-delivered interventions for improving a specific area of children’s reading: their knowledge of letter names and sounds. 2. A bridging document linking the SLR and empirical research, providing justification for, and reflection on, key methodological issues. 3. A piece of empirical research exploring parent and teacher views of home-reading more broadly, with a resulting framework for Educational Psychology practice. The SLR includes 6 parent-delivered intervention studies measuring outcomes of children’s letter name and letter sound knowledge, with a total of 163 participants. The empirical research includes 33 participants, 17 teachers and 16 parents, from 3 schools located in the North East of England. Findings from the SLR suggest that there is limited evidence to support the role of parents in delivering interventions for children’s letter name and letter sound knowledge. Whilst the empirical research highlights three areas pertinent to parents and teachers with regard to home-reading: (1) promoting positive experiences (2) promoting home-school links (3) reducing barriers. The implications for Educational Psychologists are discussed in light of the findings.