Abstract:
Family literacy, equity of opportunity and social justice in the years prior to school are now more important than ever as families face the literacy challenges of the 21st Century. This presentation uses a Bakhtinian perspective to explore how families engage with books and digital technology with very young children, and young children’s voices and choices in this space.
The presentation considers diverse families of very young mums, new arrivals and refugees and other parents with interrupted schooling and how these wide-ranging family reading practices may impact on children prior to school.
This session reports on the longitudinal study Babies and books (2011-2014) exploring the family reading practices of 300 first time families being undertaken by the University of South Australia and the Little Big Book Club. The research reports on the findings from yearly developmental reading interview/ surveys and in depth case studies, which suggest there is an explosion in children’s use of electronic devices from eighteen months of age onwards.