Family learning initiatives hold immense potential to positively impact entire communities, transcending individual benefits to create widespread improvements in literacy, education, and social cohesion.
Family literacy is a pivotal factor in supporting adult learning, particularly in addressing challenges related to adult literacy. It involves collaborative efforts within families to enhance literacy skills across generations, ensuring a supportive learning environment conducive to continuous learning.
In a recent survey of secondary schools, it was found that many students were graduating from primary school with a vocabulary that was incredibly poor for their age. It also revealed that limited vocabulary affected the learning capabilities of 4 out of 10 students.
Family learning encourages intergenerational learning, providing an array of opportunities for the entire unit, including children, parents, and grandparents. It engages families as a collective to learn together in order to raise skills across generations. These programmes take place in conjunction with schools or other communities such as non-profit organizations.
There was a time when many educators as well as parents believed that dual language learning could prove to be a major hindrance in a child’s development of English language skills. But research has shown that children who have a different primary language can use it as a foundation for their English learning. Validating and encouraging their language and culture can play an important role in helping them master new skills while strengthening the ones they already have.
