Examining Families’ Early Literacy Beliefs and Practices Within a Head Start Program: Building Bridges

Abstract

An important beginning in bridging early literacy learning between the home and preschool setting is to deepen the understanding of families’ literacy beliefs and practices. In this study, 213 families in a rural Midwestern Head Start program completed The Family Early Literacy Survey, which asked participants to share literacy beliefs and practices using both a Likert scale-items and open-ended questions. The findings document that families believed it was important for their child to develop early literacy and that they engaged in strategies such as reading a book with their child or helping them with their homework. However, they reported few home activities related to children’s specific early literacy skills (i.e., writing the child’s name, learning letter sounds), instead relying on the Head Start program to develop these skills. Implications of the findings for building bridges to between preschool programs and families to support children’s early literacy skills are discussed.