Literacy impacts parenting

AMERICAN FORK — For some, it's a chance to learn to speak and read English.

For others, it's a training ground to become a better parent.

For Elosia Garcia, the American Fork mother of two, it's an opportunity to better prepare her children for school.

It, in all three cases, is Motheread/Fatheread Utah, a family literacy program designed to build parenting, critical- thinking and literacy skills, improve family communication and promote reading and story sharing in the home.

"It's a great program," said Garcia, one of eight parents who with their children participated in a recent Spanish Motheread/Fatheread class at Greenwood Elementary, 50 E. 200 South, American Fork.

"It really teaches parents how to educate their kids," said Esther Morales, an Alpine School District educator who oversees the program at Greenwood.

The Utah Humanities Council has operated the Motheread/Fatheread program in select areas of the state since 1996.

In 2002, the program was able to expand statewide — now reaching 27 of 29 counties — thanks to a grant from the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning, the charitable arm of Utah Power.

PacifiCorp contributed $350,000 to the program over a four-year period, with the goal of improving literacy skills in communities.

That money has gone to good use, according to a recent study by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, a Portland, Ore.-based nonprofit research and development company.

The study shows that 65 percent of parents who participated in the program during that time increased their reading ability by at least one grade level.

And that results in parents reading to their children more often, said Pippa Keene, Motheread/Father- ead Utah program director.

"If you have a low literacy level yourself, you're probably not going to be comfortable reading," Keene said. "You may not feel that you're good enough at it to read to your child."

Trained Motheread/Fatheread instructors such as Morales use children's books to help parents overcome language barriers and other obstacles, she said. Parents also are instructed in how to build discussions and create a bond with their children through reading.