Effective Parenting for Literacy Development

If you are interested in learning effective parenting skills to foster literacy development , there are enough articles and resources on the internet to keep anyone reading and thinking for years. Sometimes though, there is so much information it is confusing to know what to read and if the information is contradictory, who to believe.

One awesome aspect about society is that as it develops and matures, it is capable of taking old information, adding newly acquired information to it, reordering and reshaping it, and then repackaging it as new and improved information. There is nothing wrong with this. This is how the human species has grown from being cave dwellers to being who we are today. The catch here is that many things parents have been doing for eons are still really effective parenting skills for literacy development today.

One of the issues with literacy development and parenting today is that most children live in families where both parents, or the single parent, work so parental time and energy is limited. With the hectic schedules families have in this day and age, making time for more than just getting the basics done is a burden. So, the gist of this article is on how to support effective literacy development while involved in basic activities of daily living - better known as ADLs.

Although the term ADL is typically used in the field of medicine and most commonly in dealing with the elderly, it has significance in this discussion. Wikipedia defines ADLs as the "things we normally do in daily living, including any daily activity we perform for self-care such as feeding ourselves, bathing, dressing, grooming, going to work, doing homemaking activities, and taking part in leisure activities. These ADLs are a part of every one's life and as such are excellent natural times during the day to support the literacy development of children.

The definition of ALDs given above can be adjusted to be more specific for children by saying - any daily activity a child performs related to feeding, bathing/washing, toileting, dressing, going to bed and waking up, combing hair, going to childcare or pre-school, doing chores, and taking part in indoor and outdoor play activities. So, what this means is that effective parenting for literacy development skills are to use these naturally occurring times and activities to promote literacy development.

For fun, let's develop a list of naturally occurring literacy activities that a parent, sibling, or babysitter can do during a typical day with an infant

Waking up- smile at the baby and say hello, talk to the baby about their body parts while changing their diaper and getting them dressed, sing a good morning song, play peek-a-boo, make funny faces, play imitate each other etc.

Fixing breakfast - Sit the baby in the high chair and put toys on it for them to play with, talk to the baby while fixing food, have siblings show the baby picture books or photographs, sing songs about eating and food

Feeding breakfast - talk about what the baby is doing, name the foods, name the eating utensils, name the colors of items on the tray, look at the labels on the baby food, etc.

For an older child, the morning ritual can include literacy activities such as: looking at the labels of hygiene items and "reading" what they are, looking at cereal, juice, milk containers and telling a story about the pictures, "reading" the tags or labels on their clothing, looking at books while waiting to eat, riding in the car, etc.

There is no doubt that families lead hectic existences. There is very little time for adding anything else into their already packed days. Although, with some careful thought and planning, effective parenting for literacy development activities can be built into the activities of daily living giving children a Head Start in being ready for school success.

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