During the AAAL/LCA Conference last fall, several sessions were held to introduce supplements to the original Literacy and Parenting Skills materials. Exciting new products have been developed to complement the Literacy and Parenting Skills (LAPS) materials, which have already been widely distributed to family literacy programs throughout Canada. The recently developed resources listed below address learning needs which have been apparent since the publication of the original manuals.

Video
“Path to Learning’’ is a dynamic information video, which dramatically portrays the Literacy and Parenting Skills program as it operates in a variety of settings. Glimpses of Mainstream, English as a Second Language (ESL) and Aboriginal (A-LAPS) sessions reveal the strategies employed to encourage parents in their efforts to build on their current literacy and parenting skills and to assist in their children’s language and literacy development.

LAPS - Canadian Language Benchmarks - Levels 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
In response to those who have asked us to adapt LAPS for these and for advanced ESL students, we have created six new levels of LAPS which correspond to the Canadian Language Benchmarks. Since LAPS (original manuals) coincide with Levels 2 and 3, the new products allow facilitators who are working with ESL students interested in parenting topics to select a supplementary manual that suits the level that they are teaching. Activities and handouts are modified to conform to the criteria for each benchmark level. Participants at the conference workshops enjoyed working at activities drawn from the CLB 1 level and seeing how the same concepts were explored and adapted to suit the skill building accomplished in CLB 8.

LAPS Interactive Parent/Child Activities
Organizations which work with both parents and children (e.g. family resource centres; day cares; community schools) will enjoy our 5 new sessions which involve both parents and children on 5 topics chosen from the original LAPS and meant to complement those sessions (though they are standalone sessions in their own right). Topics selected are: Building Esteem in our Children; Positive Discipline; Schools; Listening to Children; Talking to our Children. The sessions are full of ideas to stimulate both parents and children and to enhance parents’ ability to develop their children’s language and literacy skills. Workshop participants role-played a parent/child activity involving creating a road map together, which included many of the symbols that the child thought should be on a road map. The ensuing conversation proved that we delight in the little kid that is still in all of us.

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