Throughout my years working with low income children and families, I have become very passionate about promoting literacy and how important is to read to their children. I make sure families become aware of the activities happening in their local library, getting them a library card if needed, providing literacy workshops at our centers by inviting a lady from the community to talk about the topic, etc. I think is so important or families to understand that if they can spend at least twenty minutes a day just one on one looking and talking about a book to your child, it will help their language and vocabulary skills. I have worked very closely with my Latino families and having them understand how important it is to spend time with your kids, many times I got responses such as: I don't have time, he does not sit, I have to take care of the house, he gets read at home, and many more excuses. One thing I share with them is that I use to say that because I did not know any better, I was a young mom, no experience or support and bad relationship. Many of the times I am able to relate to their stories, but it is why I will promote how important and its benefits for their children.
My research will be to study the importance of spending a minimum of twenty minutes either reading, looking, sharing stories with your child and compare their increase of bonding, increase of vocabulary. I would do it as a longitudinal study.
Sharing the positive results and outcomes will be such an important asset to help families get educate on how they can help their child from early years.
