What is Family Literacy?
Family literacy focusses on parents, grandparents and other family members to improve the reading and writing skills of the whole family.
By reading to children and engaging in fun literacy activities regularly, adults actively keep their own skills sharp and also help children improve their skills.
Family literacy activities strengthen the relationship between family members which, in turn, encourages lifelong learning.
Without adult support and a strong foundation at home, a child is less likely to be successful and engaged in school.
Programs
Facts & Statistics
Download literacy facts and infographic for use in your organization’s communications, as well as for personal use.
Children whose parents are involved with them in family literacy activities score 10 points higher on standardized reading tests.
The Effect of Family Literacy Interventions On Children’s Acquisition of Reading: From Kindergarten to Grade 3 – Conducted by Monique Sénéchal for the National Center for Family Literacy, 2006
One year of parental education has a bigger positive impact on whether a son or daughter will attend a postsecondary institution than an extra $50,000 in parental income.
A mother’s reading skill is the greatest factor affecting her children’s future academic success, outweighing other factors, like neighborhood and family income.
Parents’ reading habits play a large role in determining how often kids read: 57% of kids who are frequent readers have parents who read books 5–7 days per week, compared to only 15% of kids who are infrequent readers.
Kids and Family Reading Report – Scholastic, 2017
Children of low-literate parents are exposed to 30,000,000 fewer words and enter kindergarten with a much larger skills gap than their peers.
The Case for Investment in Adult Basic Education – Kevin Morgan, Dr. Peter Waite, Michele Diecuch, 2017
The positive impacts of family literacy programming are greater than interventions including giving homework to children or reducing class size. Moreover, children from disadvantaged backgrounds can benefit from family literacy programming at least to the same extent as children from other backgrounds. Further, family literacy programming enhances children’s social and emotional development and parents’ confidence as parents.
Impact and Implementation of Family Literacy Programmes: Review and Recommendations – National Adult Literacy Agency (Ireland), 2018
