Parental involvement and the early literacy skills of Asian American preschool children

There were three purpose of this descriptive research design. The first purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was a correlation between parental involvement and Asian American preschool children's early literacy skills. The second purpose of this study was to determine which of three aspects of parental involvement (Home-Based, School-Based and Home-School Conferencing) correlate positively with preschool children's literacy achievement in English. The third purpose of this research was to compare the differences in Asian American preschool children's early literacy skills among children with parents using a single language (Chinese or English) versus children with parents using two languages (both Chinese and English) in the home environment.;There were eighty-one parents and their children recruited from two schools located in Richardson and Houston, Texas. The Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ) (Perry, Fantuzzo & Munis, 2002) was utilized to examine the rates of Asian American parental participation in their preschool children's early education and the Early Literacy Skills Assessment (ELSA) was used to evaluate the early literacy skills of Asian American preschool children. The research found that the Asian American parents responded with the highest levels of participation in Home-Based Involvement and lower levels of participation in School-Based Involvement and Home-School Conferencing. Furthermore, the Asian American preschool children demonstrated the most advanced levels of early literacy skills in the Alphabetic Principle subtest. In addition, this research found that Asian American children demonstrated lower levels on the Comprehension subtest.;The results also revealed that parents who had higher levels of participation in Home-Based Involvement had children with higher levels on both early literacy Comprehension skills and Concepts About Print. Besides, this study showed that the English group and Bilingual group (both Chinese and English) demonstrated higher Alphabetic Principle levels than the Chinese group. Additionally, this study found that the English group demonstrated higher levels of Concepts About Print than the Chinese group.;Finally, the findings of this study were important for parents to be made aware that the Home-Based Involvement may contribute positively to children's literacy skills. Preschool teachers and administrators might encourage parental involvement by providing multiple strategies for parents to be engaged with the preschool programs. Additionally, Teacher educators might use the findings to re-examine the preparation of teachers who will be working with children from diverse cultures.