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Harvard Family Research Project:
During their elementary school years, children undergo important developmental changes.
Their reasoning becomes more logical, their attention gets more adaptable, their perspective taking grows more sophisticated, and their reading and math skills blossom.
As in the period of early childhood, family involvement processes are critical for elementary-school-age children's learning and development.
Helping with homework: Parents' involvement in their children's homework can make a difference.
Managing children's education: Parents manage and coordinate the different environments---home, school, and community---in which their children learn and develop.
When parents manage their children's education by being involved both at home and in school, they affect children's literacy achievement over time through children's feelings about literacy. High levels of family involvement in kindergarten promote children's positive feelings about literacy, which in turn leads to better literacy performance throughout elementary school.
Perhaps the greatest change in family involvement processes in the elementary school years relates to the ways in which parents must take responsibility for children's learning.
Whereas, in early childhood, unstructured reading and play in the home is critical for children's growth and development, this review points to new parent responsibilities that emerge in elementary school---including supporting literacy, helping with homework, managing education, and maintaining high expectations.
Posted on April 10, 2007 02:39 PM
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