Putting the science of literacy into the hands of Canadians

Ensuring high levels of literacy for all children is now more important than ever. However, the Canadian landscape of literacy is quickly changing. For instance, Canadian families come from increasingly multilingual and multicultural backgrounds and the use of technology and digital media in literacy is growing rapidly. In this Mitacs project, we have partnered with Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation to answer important questions as to how parents can best support the development of their children’s reading skills. In particular, our project focuses on a deep evaluation of scientific evidence to illuminate key ways in which parents’ reading related knowledge shapes early literacy experiences in the home and impacts children’s reading achievement, both as they read on paper and in digital formats. We will mobilize this knowledge into bite-sized scientific briefings that will be disseminated broadly by the Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation through their social media channels and wide community networks.

Faculty Supervisor:

Hélène Deacon

Student:

Kyle Levesque

Partner:

Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Education

University:

Dalhousie University