Focus on Parents

Description of Program Model

PRINTS (Parents’ Roles Interacting With Teacher Support)

PRINTS is a workshop-style family literacy curriculum for parents and caregivers developed by Dr. William T. Fagan of Memorial University in Newfoundland and Dr. Mary C. Cronin of the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. PRINTS grew out of a study that showed that families and schools frequently misunderstood each other’s roles, and that children’s learning was most successful when both schools and parents recognized the important role that families play in literacy learning. The PRINTS resources include a facilitator’s manual with detailed plans for twelve two-hour sessions, a handbook for parents, a training manual for facilitators, and two videotapes—one for use with parent participants and one directed at facilitators. Facilitators can be professionals or volunteers. In the past six years, the program has been implemented at sites in Newfoundland, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario.

PRINTS is based on the belief that parents want to support their child and are already doing the best they can to provide that support. The program makes parents more aware of what they are already doing well, and gives them the tools and information they need to continue to create a home environment that fosters literacy development.

The curriculum is organized around five steps, which represent the contexts in a child’s life in which literacy development may occur. These steps or contexts are: books and book sharing; talk and oral language; play; scribbling, drawing, and writing; and environmental print. Through hands-on learning, parents are introduced to forty activities, based on free or low-cost materials, that they can share with their child across the five steps. Five parental roles provide a framework for parents’ interaction with their child: providing opportunities for parent-child sharing, providing recognition or feedback, interacting in effective ways, modeling literacy, and setting guidelines. Parents are encouraged to rely on their own judgement to modify activities to suit the age and maturity of their child. Each session allows time for parents to share their experiences and to offer suggestions and support to each other.

The goal of PRINTS is not just to teach parents a set of activities, but to help them develop the skills, confidence, and creativity to take advantage of any situation that comes along in daily life to provide meaningful learning for their child.