Abstract
Children who come from non-English speaking households tend to suffer academically due to language barriers. Parents agree it is important for their child to receive a good education, but they are unsure how to engage academically with them. Parental involvement is imperative for a child to succeed in school, and these parents want to become involved in their child's educational career. To help foster engagement, schools often offer programs for English Language Learners including translators, after school programs, and ESL teachers. Schools usually do not have any programs to support language learning or school support for the families. This study will explore the effectiveness of an after school program focused on parental involvement in a child's early language development.
This study's aim is to explore through qualitative methods if an after school program helped parents acquire skills and techniques to increase literacy learning at home and school. The goal of this study is to meet with these parents and learn about how these strategies taught in the program may have become embedded into their home lives, helping them engage academically with their children. During the course of this program, parents should become more confident on ways to help their child and promote language development. The study will examine whether this was the case.