The purpose of this article is to share with you the findings of a survey carried out with parents of children from the Family Centre through to Year 2. The questionnaire responses were collected during one week as following the development of the PIP Programme I was often able to engage groups of parents in small action research projects providing me with a snapshot of current practice. This report is one such activity. (See Appendix 1 for letter and Questionnaire to parents.)
"The Bedtime Story"
Once again, practitioners had expressed concerns, this time arising from conversations held with children about reading and bedtime stories. It seemed that some children no longer shared an evening story with parents but instead “chose” the Video or DVD or CD to watch or listen to in bed alone, sometimes falling asleep before the end.
Kathy de Silva comments in her recent research “The Relationship Between the Home Learning Environment and Education Outcomes at age 7” (kathy.sylva@edstud.ox.ac.uk covered in TES 1st. 06.07)
"language rich activities such as reading to the child, listening to the child read and adult-child play all contribute to better social ability. One factor that consistently contributes to all forms of child development is one-to-one interaction between parent and child."
The purpose of the short questionnaire I sent out to parents was twofold:-
- 1. to gather information / data
- 2. to raise awareness
The questions gave parents an opportunity to reflect on their practice and perhaps rethink some aspects. This was also an opportunity to informally reinforce how important communication with their child really is.
Shared Moments
“It’s like fairy dust sprinkling through the leaves” …said of shafts of sunlight filtering down through branches of a tree on a sunny day
And
“Look, the angry dragon is breathing fire across the sky”... said one crisp winters evening just as the sun was setting.
Both spontaneous exclamations from Millie just 5, who loves sharing both books and DVD’s and delights us with such descriptive language.
As Early Years practitioners, we should also be aware, that by sharing activities with adults we enable a child to develop not only skills of communication but also those of critical thinking. They can also experience a sense of emotional wellbeing and for adults; such moments can bring great pleasure.
Summary of Survey Findings
The age of the children in the survey sample ranged from 3 months to 7 years and covered the Family Centre, Nursery, Reception, Year1 and Year 2. 124 of the 250 children eligible, were represented in the Questionnaire responses i.e. 50%
(See Appendix 2 for Questionnaire and Appendix 3 for the collated Data from individual responses.)
- All children had access to books at home. A large number of children also had access to Video / DVD with the largest proportion being in Reception, Year 2 and the Family Centre. A much smaller percentage of children had access to story tapes.
- When given a choice of different media and asked to list their child’s five favourite stories, only parents of children in Reception and the Family Centre placed the choice of Books higher than the choice of watching a Video / DVD. The preference for watching stories in Video / DVD form was significantly higher with children in Years 1 & 2, whilst interest in Story CDs was overall very low, other than with children in Y2.
- A larger number of children (with the exception of Y2 most enjoyed sharing a story in book form at bedtime in preference to Video / DVD’s. A number of parents commented that their child “enjoyed a book at anytime” whilst other parents commented that their child liked to watch a Video / DVD “after school”. This last factor may well have been responsible for the data which reinforced that children in the Family Centre and Nursery enjoyed watching Video/ DVD during the day whilst children R Y1 and especially Y2 enjoyed a Video / DVD in the evening.
- Story CD / Tape seemed to have little interest for most children other than Y2 when once again a high 84% enjoyed this form of story in the evening.
- When asked if their child enjoyed a book alone most parents replied “sometimes” or “never”. However, 15 replied “always” and of these, 9 were parents of children in Nursery and Reception.
- When asked the same question about Video / DVD, a smaller group of 5 indicated their child “always” watched alone. Once again, this included very young children.
- Just 3 children “always” listened to a story CD/Tape alone and these were in Nursery.
- When finally the questions were brought together and parents were asked to choose between daytime or evening and to indicate when their child was most likely” to enjoy a story through Book /Video &DVD/ Story tape”, a book in the evening seemed to be the preferred choice for each age group other than Y2 children. Their preferred choice was a Video/DVD in the evening.
- The final section of the questionnaire asked parents what other types of reading materials their child looked at. By offering choices, I was drawing attention to the variety of print that is available to share with children. I hoped to reinforce the message shared through previous reading workshops, that the reading experience should not just be confined to the “Reading Book” brought home from school. Responses showed that most children had access to comics and magazines at home but fewer had access to newsprint or advertisements perhaps indicating that parents were less aware of the value of this source of material. In addition, very few parents seemed to recognise that instructions for games and recipes can be a useful tool in extending reading and communication skills.
- Finally, parents were asked to list any “other” source of reading material their child looked at. It was here that the informal role modelling provided by staff through the group activities in the Family Centre and during the many family workshops became evident. Parents listed numerous ways of sharing text with their child summed up by one parent who wrote “anything with writing”.
Conclusion
It was evident from the data that most children had a healthy engagement with story through a variety of media. They enjoyed books and Video / DVD in almost equal proportion choosing to share the activity with adults both during the day, after school and during the evening.
A small number of children did indeed choose the Video / DVD to watch alone in the evening and with tactful and private conversation, parents were encouraged to consider the appropriateness of such activity, particularly those with young children.
Year 2 children were beginning to show themselves as independent learners choosing their own time and space for their involvement with text. A short workshop, to focus on the developing reader shared with parents the importance of communicating with their child and the importance of being aware of what they read and watched and when.
The outcome of the survey confirmed the initial concern that “some children may possibly be falling asleep to the DVD story they chose in the evening” but the data indicated, thankfully that the number appeared to be few. Indeed the response to the final question was very rewarding and showed that the majority of parents were very aware that print is all around and recognised the importance of their role in communicating with their child. Do read the appendix to see the very varied contexts of print used by parents to develop their child’s awareness of how it is used.
A Final Comment
Whilst 50% response to a questionnaire is a good response, one should remember that the data produced only represents half the eligible children in the focus age group. Therefore, conclusions drawn only represent half of the experiences of young children in this setting.
If you have been interested in this small piece of research, perhaps you will be interested to ask of your own setting
“Do we know the experience of the children we work with?”
Gail K. Bedford. July 2007.
Education Consultant “Supporting the Learning Community”
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