Literary Socialization of Young Children in the Family Context Helma van Lierop-Debrauwer, Tilburg University and Leiden University

The family’s ‘literary climate’: -The material aspects such as acces to reading matter; -Parental activities and attitudes such as the parents’own reading behaviour; -The family’s interaction patterns, e.g. parents reading to their children

Social class and ethnic-cultural background Various studies point to a relation between social class, ethnic-cultural background and emergent literacy and/or literary socialization. However, in other studies one can find sufficient evidence that there is no one-to- one relation between becoming literate and SES or cultural background: Family tradition had a greater impact

Reading promotion programmes in the Netherlands since the 1990’s The 1980’s: Intuitive reading promotion: -No firm theoretical basis; -No structural exchange of ideas between the different institutions; -No effect measurements

Reading promotion programmes in the Netherlands since the 1990’s Since the 1990’s: Rational reading promotion: -Large-scale projects grounded on academic reading research and theories; -Institutional webs for the development and realization of reading promotion programmes; -Formulation of explicit basic assumptions

Boekenpret (Bookfun) Dutch reading promotion programme for 0 to 6 year olds The aim is four-fold: 1.To improve the material reading environment; 2.To make child raisers conscious of the importance of reading; 3.To enhance the quality of interactions between child raisers and children and 4.To improve the child raiser’s own reading behaviour

Boekenpret (Bookfun) -Different goals for babies (0-2), nippers (2- 4) and toddlers (4-6) -Intervention materials and activities are centre-based as well as home-based -Bookfun is tailor-made and varies per location

Boekenpret (Bookfun) Bookfun evaluation project: -In line with the successful English Bookstart programme: a central role for child health centres -Effect research should lead to a new stage in reading promotion: Comprehensive reading promotion