Linking Literacy Activities and Family Routines: A Strengths-Based Approach using the Family Map Inventories

• In Event: Comprehensive Family Services in Early Care and Education Programs Serving Infants and Toddlers

Abstract

The Family Map Inventory (FMI) is a research-based interview conducted by early childhood program staff with caregivers. It serves as a screening tool to identify family needs and prioritize delivery of comprehensive services for families in home- and center-based programs such as Head Start/Early Head Start and public home visiting (e.g., McKelvey & Fitzgerald, 2020). FMI gathers parenting and environmental characteristics of the home related to healthy child development including early literacy, play, and family routines. Home environments can be an important context for early literacy development (Griffin & Morrison, 1997). Our hypothesis was that family strengths in early literacy activities would relate to increased frequency of other positive family routines and activities.
We employed a cross-site database of infant-toddler FMI interviews between trained staff and mothers of children aged 0-36 months. Data were collected pre-pandemic in English or Spanish from 789 mothers across multiple U.S. states. Children’s mean age was 19.3 months (SD = 9.71). Mothers’ mean age was 28.6 years (SD = 6.79). The sample was diverse, as most children were Hispanic (40%) or Black (27%); 57% were female. About 40% of families spoke Spanish or another language at home. Mothers typically had a high school diploma or less (61%); about one-third were employed full time. Although FMI contains numerous literacy items and rich detail about routines, previous studies have not focused on literacy and our study represents a new use of the dataset.
We constructed an index of literacy strengths, including items such as number of books in the home and access to libraries. Pearson correlations were calculated between this strength index with daily routine activities, play activities, and a variety of other family activities. In terms of daily routines, the literacy strength index had small but significant correlations with having routines for tooth brushing (r = 0.13, p < .001), bedtimes (r = 0.15, p < .001), and in the morning (r = 0.08, p < .05). Table 1 presents correlations between literacy strengths and play. Correlations in this area were statistically significant, ranging from moderate to large, across all play activities. Table 2 presents correlations between literacy strengths and a variety of other family activities such as visiting museums or community events. Predominantly, the correlations were significant and varied in size for different activities. Future analyses will examine how family demographic profiles relate to family literacy strengths and will be incorporated if accepted.
Our study illustrates the value of using FMI to gather information about family literacy and routines during a screening process by programs offering comprehensive services to young children and families. Strengths (and risks) in literacy are linked with strengths (and risks) in other family domains including play. As early literacy can predict school readiness (e.g., Welsh et al., 2010), identifying challenges families face in interacting with infants and toddlers can bolster future successes. Programs like Early Head Start can employ tools including FMI to set literacy goals for families with risks in this area, building on strengths identified in other domains.

Authors

• Jason T Hustedt, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Deborah Drain, University of Delaware

• Myae Han, University of Delaware

• Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)

• Rubie Marie Eubanks, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)

• Christina Joe, University of Delaware

• Imani Lawson, University of Delaware