The Influence of Family Structure on a Child's Literacy

The Influence of Family Structure on a Child's Literacy
 
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The Influence of Family Structure on a Child's Literacy 
According to Slot (2018), children at a young age can easily learn things from observing and hearing what people around them are doing or saying. As a result, family structure greatly influences a child's literacy. In a child's development process, literacy is critical because it determines their ability to understand things that happen around them and even their ability to read and write. (Paradis, 2020) defines family structure as a term used to describe members of a given group who can be related by bloodline or marriage. Consequently, the research will be based on a child raised in a household with both parents and older siblings and one raised as a single child by a single parent. Furthermore, the essay will discuss the influence of family structure on bilingualism, socialization, and motor and cognitive skills acquired by younger children.
(Paradis, 2020) depicts that childhood is a crucial stage in every human development stage. Humans are born not knowing how to behave. They, therefore, heavily rely on the environment around them as they grow to learn about societal norms. Learning occurs through being directly told how to act in a given situation or observing and emulating what others in a given environment are doing. Consequently, since family is a child's primary social group, their impact fully influences their literacy (Slot, 2018). In a family structure where there is a father, a mother, and an older sibling, a child's literacy level is higher compared to one that grows up with a single parent in most cases (Steiner et al., 2022). In addition, in a family where a child grows up with older siblings, they develop various language skills faster than individuals who grow up as single children.
The influence of Having Both Parents
Steiner et al. (2022) are keen to show in their research that a child's literacy level is highly influenced when they grow up with both parents rather than when a single parent raises a child. According to the findings in their research, when children are read and spoken to during their early childhood, they get better at grammar and vocabulary. Steiner et al. (2022) findings of their research indicate that when a child is raised by both parents, they have more time to talk and read books to their young one. When a child is young and they are read a storybook by their parents, they tend to develop an appropriate context to learn a given language. Also, to stimulate children's linguistic and cognitive development, parents engage in open-ended questions, pointing, and repetition (Steiner et al., 2022). Thus, when a child is in a family structure where both parents are present, they tend to learn more because they have people around them to talk to. Conversely, when a child is raised by a single parent who is always working, they may not get enough time to read books to the child, affecting their language skills. Therefore, in a family structure where both parents are present in a child's life, the child's literacy level is better.
Furthermore, according to Merga & Ledger (2018), w...