Continuity and change in home literacy practices of Hispanic families with preschool children

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine how Latino immigrant families incorporate school‐based interactive literacy activities into their existing home literacy practices. Findings revealed that Hispanic parents appropriate school‐related literacy activities into their existing repertoire when they believed it would best help their children to succeed academically. At the same time, parents modified school‐related literacy activities to reflect their existing cultural beliefs and practices. These complex patterns of adapting school literacy practices into home literacy interactions revealed that Hispanic parents: (a) emphasise pleasure and interactivity in literacy activities; (b) merge supportive and direct instruction scaffolding strategies into home literacy instruction; (c) impart moral messages while engaging in interactive literacy activities with their children; and (d) activate linguistic resources by creating opportunities for bilingual literacy events to occur during school‐designed interactive literacy activities.

Keywords:

• Early childhood education
• Family literacy
• Hispanic families