Improving Family Literacy Practices

Abstract

A 10-question Likert-type scale survey was presented to parents of children enrolled in the Imagination Library’s (IL) program. IL sends age-appropriate books once a month to children from birth to age 5 so that their parent can read to them. After registering for the program and receiving books, 93 parents answered the survey questions electronically. The questions noted the difference in family literacy behavior after receiving the books. Nine of the questions were multiple-choice whereas the last question was open-ended. This third-year survey was compared with the earlier surveys to establish reliability and used repeated questions to establish validity. The respondents were drawn from a rural minority population in an economically depressed area. The survey results suggested that parents spend more time reading to their children regularly after enrolling in the program. The percentage of parents who read to their children more than once a day rose from 24% to 43%. According to the survey, 48% of parents reported that their child was much more interested in reading. More than half of the parents (67%) reported that their child asked more frequently for books to be read to them after enrolling in the program. In addition, 68% of the families reported that multiple members of the family were engaged with the reading activities. Families report that reading the books had been a positive experience for their children and had helped 70% with vocabulary development and 66% with listening skills.