KAI believes family literacy is an important key to student success. Literacy is essential to a child’s learning process and academic achievement. Research tells us that children develop language skills long before being able to read; positive parental attitudes toward literacy help children become more successful readers; and effective literacy programs offer literacy training to families, including parents and children.
KAI has supported a series of family literacy workshops annually for KMSPA students and their families since 2013. The Family Literacy Workshops bring families together in the evening to teach parents the skills they need to really engage their children in reading, with the support of trained classroom teachers and under the arts-infused leadership and direction of celebrated Connecticut teaching artists. Through KAI sponsoring the Family Literacy Workshop Series, dozens of KMSPA families are able to participate in engaging activities that promote reading at home, and provide parents with the strategies, resources, and tools to support their child’s education at a critical time.
In addition to providing valuable family bonding time, reading with a caring adult has been shown to help children by increasing attention span, improving memory, and strengthening problem solving and language skills. Reading also helps children develop:
· speech
· words for life
· ability to understand
· ability to write
· eagerness to read
The single best way to encourage these skills is to read out loud with children. You can’t start too early, and you can’t continue too long. Experts recommend that families begin reading to newborns and continue at least through fifth grade. For more information on best practices for helping students reach reading proficiency by 3rd grade, read this study funded by the McKnight Foundation.
This seven-minute video produced by Reach Out and Read Connecticut describes the many benefits of families reading together.