Why is family literacy critical to raising literacy levels in Tasmania?
One in two adult Tasmanians does not have the literacy skills they need to fully engage with family, community and work. Even more have low numeracy.
Many of these Tasmanians are parents or carers.
Parents and carers are a child’s most important educator in the early years, when 90 per cent of a child’s brain development occurs. They help language development by talking, singing, rhyming and reading with their children, from birth.
Parents with low literacy often lack the confidence to help their children. They lack the skills to read with their children and later to engage with their education.
Children miss out on important foundations for literacy without this early support.
Improving the literacy of parents and carers needs to be a key component of achieving better outcomes in the early years.
How does 26TEN help families?
26TEN helps families by supporting parents and carers to improve their reading, writing, spelling and maths skills. This gives parents and carers the confidence to support their children’s learning.
26TEN also supports organisations and communities to understand how low literacy impacts individuals and our society.
A free one hour literacy awareness workshop explains:
- the prevalence and reasons for low literacy
- how to better identify low literacy in parents and carers
- how to use the 26TEN Chat to refer people for help
- the benefits of clear communication.
We offer free plain English workshops for schools, businesses and government organisations. We will also offer a free one hour workshop for schools on writing student reports in plain English. Find out more: