Reading at home is the best way to turn around Canada’s poor literacy levels, says reading expert Jan Dupuis.
With four out of every 10 adult Canadians struggling with a sub-standard literacy level, according to a 2005 survey, the most effective way to make sure literacy becomes more widespread is to encourage it in the home, in the family and with children, said Dupuis, literacy outreach co-ordinator with the Victoria Literacy Task Force.
“Their reading levels aren’t good enough, their writing skills aren’t good enough, their computer skills, they might not even have any, and their math skills are very low,” Dupuis said in the lead-up to today’s Family Literacy Day.
The statistics from the 2005 survey are daunting – 900,000 men and women, aged 16 to 65, have a literacy level below that defined as the bare minimum for the modern workplace, Level 3 out of 5 – but the problem can be overcome, Dupuis said.
Just 15 minutes a day spent with a child in an activity to stimulate or encourage reading or literacy can prepare a child for a successful adulthood.
Source: ABC Life Literacy
By Richard Watts, Times Colonist January 27, 2012
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