Denise Patton: Asset-oriented parent engagement for supporting the use of decontextualized language with preschoolers in LSES Latino families

Parent participation in their preschoolers' language development helps build kindergarten readiness, particularly parents' use of decontextualized language (DL), language about abstract concepts or that does not reference the here and now. Thus, various parent training methods about DL have been developed. Most studies evaluating parent use of or training in DL focus on educated, middle-class, white families and/or parent training programs that are deficit-oriented in their design. This qualitative study, therefore, focused on Latino families of low socioeconomic status (LSES) and positioned them as assets in their preschoolers' language development. Accordingly, phase one of the study consisted of interviewing four LSES Latina parents regarding how they used language when talking with their preschoolers, as well as what more they preferred to learn about preschoolers' language development and how they preferred to learn it. Phase one findings suggest that LSES Latino families do use DL with their preschoolers and in similar ways; however, their interests in further training content and methods varied, except for preferring technological applications for learning more. The phase two interviews will garner the subjects' feedback regarding the resource's effectiveness in its dual aim of being asset-oriented and growing them as developers of their preschoolers' language skills.