Okanagan School of Education’s Dr. Jessica Chan is researching how a child’s home environment can influence their early literacy development.
As students and families settle back into the routine of school, homework and extra-curricular activities, the initial excitement over new opportunities may quickly dwindle for some. A young student’s eyes might glaze over as they stare at their math textbook or English novel while their families try various encouragement methods.
With the launch of her new study, Dr. Jessica Chan hopes to support parents and caregivers as they motivate and aid their child’s learning. As the Director of UBC Okanagan’s Reading, Language and Mathematics Lab, Dr. Chan is exploring the relationship between the home environment and children’s language, literacy and math skills.
“As parents and caregivers are usually the first teachers, the home plays such a critical role in children’s development,” says Dr. Chan, Assistant Professor in the Okanagan School of Education. “When children begin attending a more formal education setting, families continue to support and enhance their child’s learning through initiating different experiences or providing encouragement to explore new interests.”
What do you hope to learn in your study?
The majority of studies that assess the impact of the home environment are focused on early learning, while this new research is focused on children in Grades 2 and 3. At this age, children are moving beyond the foundational skills of early literacy and numeracy and are developing more complex cognitive skills, including problem-solving and critical thinking. The skills and attitudes developed in these early grades can influence a student’s future academic journey.
Additionally, in education, we often talk about building the bridge between home and school and ways to support families’ integration into the community. How do we honour the diverse voices, stories and depth of knowledge that children bring into our classrooms?
By learning more about the home environment, we can further develop ways of building those bridges.
How do language skills influence reading development? What can parents do to support language growth?
The home environment is really important in those early stages of language and literacy development. For example, our youngest language learners—infants and toddlers—start to mimic the sounds they hear and try to model the language they hear around them. Children may ask what specific words mean and the examples of them. They learn the sounds in their heritage language—English, Chinese, French, etc.—and practice working with the rhythm and structure.
These language skills then form the foundation for reading development as children learn to connect oral language to written language and begin decoding words and comprehending sentences. The decoding component is particularly important in younger grades, but oral language skills are important across a child’s development and impact reading in later grades and beyond.
Similar to supporting literacy development, there are lots of different things families can do to support language, like oral storytelling, discussing current events and topics, as well as providing time and space for your child to elaborate and share their thinking as they explore more complex topics.
What are some signs that a child might be struggling with their literacy skills?
Literacy includes both oral and written language abilities, however, reading difficulties tend to be more quickly identifiable as these skills are more regularly assessed in school settings, or we tend to notice these skills in shared reading. We are more likely to raise concern if we observe a child struggling to decode words that other children their age can read across different texts and settings.
It can be more challenging to identify an oral language concern because it can present differently. For example, the child may not have trouble with decoding but has trouble with the structure of language, impacting how they communicate their thoughts, needs or interests coherently. They might also struggle to follow and remember instructions. Additionally, if a child has trouble recalling details from a story or connecting parts of a text to each other and the real world, this could indicate comprehension issues.
How can people find out more about your research or get involved?
We are currently seeking families with children in Grades 2 and 3 to participate and we’re hoping to have students with a diverse range of abilities in literacy, language and mathematics.
The study will involve three to four 45-minute sessions, where the child will work one-on-one with a UBCO team member on a series of language, reading and math measures. More information about the lab and this study can be found at: realmlab.ok.ubc.ca
