How should high-quality early education programs engage parents?
The quality of family environments and parent-child interactions is central to a child’s literacy and cognitive development. Parents strengthen their child’s literacy development and school-related competencies when they engage in language-rich, parent-child interaction, provide supports for literacy in the family such as by reading to their children, and hold appropriate expectations of the child’s learning and development. High-quality early education programs should provide explicit training for parents in the skills and behaviors that support their child’s development. For example, parents and other family members should be encouraged to do the following activities: • Talk with children and engage them in conversations, help them to name objects in their environment (labeling). • Read and re-read stories. • Encourage children to recount experiences and describe ideas that are important to them. • Visit the library and museums. • Provide opportunities for children to draw and print,
