Children’s acquisition of early literacy skills: Examining family contribution.

Children 's Acquisition of Early Literacy Skills : Examining Family Contribution

The present is the critical review of the article Children 's acquisition of early literacy skills : Examining family contribution ' by Bennett , Weigel , and Martin (2002 . This article review includes the written critique of the research study dedicated to the investigation of correlation between language and literacy skills among preschool children from middle-income families and the family literacy environment . The critique includes type of research and adequacy of methods for answering research questions

To review the article , the research investigated how

the family literacy environment could possibly influence the development of language and literacy skills among preschool-age children from middle-income families . The investigation relied on the findings of Snow , Barnes Chandler , Goodman , and Hemphill (1991 ) who tried to explain the acquisition of language and literacy skills in school children from low-income families by three theoretical models : the Family as Educator Resilient Family , and Parent-School Partnership

Unlike Snow et al , Bennett et al . concentrated on the investigation of pre-school children from middle-income families . Bennett et al . adopted the three theoretical models for assessing their target groups (preschool children and their families in relation to Child Care centers

In regard to the Family as Educator model , Bennett et al . kept the factor of parental education ' while adjusting the other variables to the needs of younger children and their parents . For example , Snow et al 's parameter of parents creating opportunities to learn for children ' seemed to be replaced by the frequency of a child seeing parents writing ' Snow et al 's direct teaching ' factor was changed into the time parents reading to child ' in Bennett et al 's research Snow et al 's literacy environment of the home ' turned into literacy-related activities (reading aloud , reciting rhymes , telling stories , drawing pictures , and playing games ) and parents ' reading enjoyment ' in Bennett et al 's investigation , while Snow et al 's factor of parental expectations ' was left out

To contribute to the assessment and conceptualization of learning environment even more , Bennett et al . used also the concept of parental reading beliefs assessed through the parental reading belief inventory (PRBI a 39-item scale . Thus , the extent to which parents agreed or disagreed with a number of developmentally appropriate and inappropriate reading tasks was measured . The information was gathered through self-guided questionnaires having been spread among parents

In regard to the Resilient Family model , Bennett et al . saw to Snow et al 's variables of (1 ) family organization (2 ) family emotional climate , and (3 ) family stress , though , they assessed them by some innovative means . The Family Routines Questionnaire (FRQ a 17-item scale ) was used to control the degree up to which the members of a family practiced shared traditional activities . The Family Resource Scale (FRS a 30-item scale ) was utilized to measure the list and ratio of family basic necessities , social resources and entertainment activities . The Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (PDHS ) was comprised of two 20-item subscales . The Frequency Scale ' assessed a number of pitfalls occurring in...