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The article outlines two core questions for families: what most influences strong reading growth, and what parents can do at home. It highlights three influential factors—language, access to reading materials, and practice reading—explaining how differences between African American English and General American English affect comprehension, and why increased exposure to text, books, and daily reading routines support improvement.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/empowering-families-supporting-african-american-childrens-reading-development/591923/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/empowering-families-supporting-african-american-childrens-reading-development/591923.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Mabel","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why do some African American children struggle to become strong readers?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The article explains that reading depends on oral language skills, and many children use African American English, which differs from the English used in print. These mismatches can slow children while they resolve differences between how they speak and what they read.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What three factors most influence reading growth for African American children?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The article states that language, access to reading materials, and practice reading have the most influence on reading growth.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How can families help children when they lack books at home?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"If there are not many books at home, the article advises asking the child’s teacher to send more books home to increase exposure and opportunities to read.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591923,1792894049,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":81,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":39,"preview_page_count":4},7971474920318,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/74000ee537e6b0ca360?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1788430171632181674","ILLUSTRAT IONS BY MIA NOLTING  \nEmpowering Families  \nSupporting African American Children’s Reading Development  \nBy Julie A. Washington and Gennie R. Laramore  \nR  \neading is arguably the most important skill that children learn in school—and yet many children struggle to become strong readers.1 This is especially true of African American children. Children  \ngrowing up in low-income, under-resourced neighborhoods often struggle with reading. But even among Black children in wealthier neighborhoods, learning to read can be a challenge. Recent results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that fewer than 20 percent of African American fourth-graders are strong readers and more than 50 percent are struggling with reading.2  \nIn this article, we are sounding the alarm to African American families! If your child is struggling to learnto read, there are many  \nthings that you can do at home to support them.* The questions we hope to address here are: (1) What’s most important forAfrican American children to become strong readers? and (2) What can you do to help your child?  \nWhat’s Most Important for African American Children to Become Strong Readers?  \nThroughout this issue of American Educator, we see that lots of things are essential for helping children learn to read, from developing their oral language and vocabulary to helping them hearthe sounds that makeup words to showing them how letters represent sounds. That’s all true for African American children too. But research suggests that there are three factors that have the most influence on reading growth for African American children: language, access to reading materials, and practice reading.  \nJulie A. Washington is a professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. A speech-language pathologist and fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, she directs the Learning Disabilities Innovation Hubs and the Language Variation and Academic Success lab. GennieR. Laramore is a speech-language pathologist and a doctoral student in the School of Education atthe University of California, Irvine.  \nLanguage  \nReading isnot just about recognizing words on a page. Reading relies heavily on oral language (speaking) skills. Research has  \n*For a longer version of this article written for educators, see “Teaching Reading to African American Children” in the Summer 2021 issue of American Educator: go.aft. org/tx3 .  \n46 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | FALL 2023  \nshown that many African American children come to school using African American English (AAE), which is an oral language variety that differs in important ways from the print that they will see in books.3 AAE is used by many African American children and adults in their families and communities. AAE influences learning to read, write, and spell, especially forchildren who use a lot of AAE when they talk. For these children, there will be many instances when text does not match their oral language. When these mismatches are present, children may need to take more time to resolve these differences between the way they talk and what they are trying to read. Resolving these differences can slow children down, contributing to their struggle to develop strong reading skills. The good news is that strength in any oral language variety—including AAE—can support strong reading skills. But children will need more time, exposure to text, and practice reading to do their best. If you do not have many books at home, you can ask your child’s teacher to send more books home foryour child.  \nBooks are written in General American English (GAE), not AAE. Reading will become easier as children continue to read, recognize, analyze, and resolve the differences that they encounter between their speech and text. For example, there are sound differences between GAE and AAE. The child who speaks AAE may say goal and gold the same way because dropping the last sound in a word is common in AAE. There a","cbCaideNI2MOCDoi","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaideNI2MOCDoi","pdf",143602,"English","# What’s Most Important for African American Children to Become Strong Readers?\n## Language\n## Access to Reading Materials\n## Practice Reading","[{\"question\":\"Why do some African American children struggle to become strong readers?\",\"answer\":\"The article explains that reading depends on oral language skills, and many children use African American English, which differs from the English used in print. These mismatches can slow children while they resolve differences between how they speak and what they read.\"},{\"question\":\"What three factors most influence reading growth for African American children?\",\"answer\":\"The article states that language, access to reading materials, and practice reading have the most influence on reading growth.\"},{\"question\":\"How can families help children when they lack books at home?\",\"answer\":\"If there are not many books at home, the article advises asking the child’s teacher to send more books home to increase exposure and opportunities to read.\"}]","Empowering Families - Supporting African American Children’s Reading Development | PDF",1792073482]