Family literacy in preschoolers’ linguistic and metalinguistic skill development

Abstract

Purpose: to verify family literacy practices with preschoolers from a public school in a municipality of the Northeast Region of Brazil. Methods: 21 parents/guardians of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students from a public school participated in this study. A questionnaire with 18 items on the parents’/guardians’ participation in family literacy practices was develop for this research. The resulting data underwent descriptive and inferential analysis, with the significance level set at 5%. Results: the preschoolers’ mean age was 69 months, and that of the parents/guardians who answered the questionnaire was 31 years. The educational level of most parents/guardians was either high school or unfinished middle school. A significant, positive relationship, between the parents’/guardians’ educational level and the following questionnaire items was seen: paying attention to the children when they spoke, calling their attention to the sound of letters and words, and teaching/encouraging them to write their names. Conclusion: family literacy practices are not commonly developed in the culture of the Northeast Region of Brazil, and when so, most of them are similar to activities taught at school. There was also a weak correlation between the parents’/guardians’ educational level and the family literacy practices.

Interaction Dynamics with Babies During Shared Reading Practices

“…Engaging in the act of reading with a baby, and sharing the same pictures, functions as a learning opportunity, particularly concerning the aspects in which two individuals establish a connection, exchange meanings, and engage in collective thought (Borges & Azoni, 2021;Niklas et al, 2016). The shared perspective that books provide serves as a potent tool for the early development of young children (Hoyne & Egan, 2019;Morais, 2020).…”