Summary of Workshops

A1 -- Extending Families

Presenters: Calvin Butt, Founder, Nourishing Foundations for Literacy Development; Francis Ennis, Program Consultant, Population and Public Health Branch, Health Canada, Atlantic Region; Bill Fagan, Literacy Advocate, MacMorran Community Centre, St. John's; Paula Power, Advisory Committee Member for Books for Babies/Extending Families Project, Corner Brook; Mary Hynes, Grandparents as Teaching Partners; Lori Fritz, NF Parent-Child Mother Goose Program.

This session provided a look at the project Expanding Literacy by Extending Families, which adapted and delivered existing family literacy initiatives to non-traditional audiences in non-traditional settings. Representatives from each of the five participating programs gave presentations.

The "Books for Babies" program, designed in 1994, is all about reading from birth. Volunteers distribute kits containing literacy "tools" (books, book bag, tips) to parents and guardians at the hospital maternity ward. The program was adapted to target "mature family members" in seniors' groups and residential complexes to promote the idea of reading from birth and to encourage their involvement. A workshop on tips for language development and for reading to young children was developed and delivered to the program participants.

PRINTS (Parents' Roles Interacting with Teacher Support) is a family literacy program designed for parents of preschoolers and kindergarten children. It is structured around five steps to literacy and five roles that parents can play. The five steps of the program are: 1) talk/oral language; 2) play; 3) environment print; 4) books and book sharing; and 5) scribbling, drawing, and writing. The five roles for parents are: 1) Providing opportunities for children; 2) Recognizing their involvement; 3) Interacting with the child; 4) Modeling literacy activities; and 5) Setting guidelines with the children. The new target groups for this program were babysitters, daycare workers, seniors and members of the Association for New Canadians.

Mother Goose is a national program that has been running in the province since 1998. It was developed by a social worker to help children's language skills, oral language development and oral language activities through prevention and early intervention, parent-child conversation, and access to various resources and materials. For the Expanding Literacy by Extending Families project the Mother Goose training workshop was adapted for adolescents who care for children.

The Grandparents as Teaching Partners program adapted from the program Parents as Teaching Partners which engaged parents in identifying literacy concerns and assisting directly with resource people to address these. Grandparents as Teaching Partners offered workshops to encourage seniors to get involved in developing children's literacy skills. The program also provided grandparents with the opportunity to interact with children in school activities in the classroom and on field trips.