Parents, Phonics, and Play

In the paper, "Phonics and play-literacy: Parental expectations of an early childhood literacy program" the author, Stacey Campbell, shares research on parental expectations of early childhood teachers in the teaching of literacy. Campbell's (2021) study surveyed parents of 3-5 year old children in day care centers, school-based early learning centers, and a community kindergarten in Australia. The survey asked parents to rate statements about phonics and early literacy on a scale of 1-5 and included an open-ended response section.

Do you support parents to understand literacy play?

In analyzing the responses, Campbell (2021) found that there was not a statistically significant difference in parent responses based on what kind of early childhood program their children attended. This may suggest that parent beliefs about early childhood development were not coming from the settings themselves, but from outside sources. This is an important point we will return to later.

Campbell's (2021) research found that parents expected that children should know the alphabet - naming and identifying all 26 letters- and some sounds before beginning formal school, as well as have experiences being read to and writing their name. Interestingly, Campbell found that, "Parents across all three service types were mostly unsure if formal phonics programs should be a part of a prior-to-school literacy program," (2021). This means that there is a huge opportunity for teachers and leaders to provide education for families on what developmentally appropriate early literacy practice looks like.

When questioned about the use of commercial phonics programs, "Parents across all three service types were more likely to disagree that commercial phonics programs should be included in a prior-to-school literacy program," (Campbell, 2021). However, there was a statistically significant difference in the responses from different setting types here. Parents of children in school-based early learning centers were more likely to agree or strongly agree that a commercial phonics program should be used compared to parents of children in community kindergarten or day care programs.

 This raises questions about the impact that connecting early childhood programs to school settings might have on raising parental expectations for traditional teaching models. This finding was echoed in parents perceptions of play. Campbell noted, "The results indicate that although most parents agreed play supported phonics learning, parents of children in non-school based early childhood settings were significantly more likely to agree learning through play is the best way for children to learn phonics, than parents whose children attend school-based ELC services," (2021). Early childhood educators in programs linked to primary schools may need to provide more parent education on what developmentally appropriate practice looks like.

The results of this study are definitely good news for teachers and administrators who feel pressure from parents to push inappropriate phonics instruction as it appears that at least some of this perception may be being over-hyped in the media. "Overwhelmingly, the majority of parents in this study supported play-based literacy learning over formal phonics instruction in the prior-to-school years. Regardless of the type of early childhood service attended by their child, parents were more likely to agree teachers should support children’s alphabetic knowledge and develop phonics skills through contextualised experiences, for example, name writing and shared reading. This supports current views that play-based learning can be linked to educational outcomes (Johnson, 2014; Roskos & Christie, 2013)," (Campbell, 2021).

This research gives us some great questions to consider and some key next steps to take in our settings.

• How do you know what the parents in your setting expect and value in early childhood literacy? How could you find out?

• How are you educating the parents in your setting about the developmentally appropriate ways that you teach early literacy?

This research shows that parental attitudes and values may be more open to playful learning than we are often told- and also that parents are generally unsure of what children should do in the early years. Knowing what your families expect as outcomes will help you to show them specifically how you can achieve those outcomes through play and/or provide education on what appropriate outcomes might be based on development.

If we want to gather parental support for playful literacy, we need to be making explicit the connections that are happening during play and how teachers are skillfully creating opportunities for children to develop early literacy skills within their play. "Parents need to be provided research-based information, rather than media-informed, on how children develop early literacy through play in the prior-to-school years," (Campbell, 2021). You should be families first and most trusted point of contact for information about child development and developmentally appropriate practice. Take this seriously.

This research shows that there are big opportunities for educating families which will support quality early childhood education. Building strong, trusting relationships and understanding families' goals for their children's early literacy learning are key to developing practice that creates authentic readers in authentic ways.

References:

Campbell, S. (2021). Phonics and play-literacy: Parental expectations of an early childhood literacy program. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 44(3), 60–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03652081