Where Literacy Begins: Developing A Needs-Based Parent Handbook for Early Childhood Literacy Skill Development in a Rural Filipino Community

Abstract The purpose of the present study was to design a parent handbook about early childhood literacy skills development at home in Filipino. The study was conducted as a study based on a simplified version of the ADDIE Model (Analysis, Design and Development stages) to collect data in ten (10) mothers of kindergarten children in a rural community in Barangay Nazareth, General Tinio, Nueva Ecija through the use of an interview guide designed by the researcher. The results showed that parents were the most consistent in the development of Letter Knowledge (M = 9.6), and least consistent in the Narrative Skills (M = 7.6) and Phonological Awareness (M = 8.4). The participants all revealed the necessity of a handbook in Filipino or Tagalog in a bid to ensure that they could easily use it at home to teach early literacy skills. This was followed by the creation of a ten-page handbook that would encompass all six early literacy skills namely Print Motivation, Print Awareness, Letter Knowledge, Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness, and Narrative Skills but with the focus on the activities that considered the gaps identified. The article finds that a culturally and linguistically responsive handbook can be used as a useful intervention in the home-school literacy gap of underserved Filipino populations.