Home > Events > LLRC Research Engagement Series: How Parents Support Literacy and Math Development Through Food Routines

LLRC Research Engagement Series: How Parents Support Literacy and Math Development Through Food Routines

Time: 
Thursday, April 05, 2018 - 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM
Location: 
Benjamin Building, Suite 1220

Please join us for coffee and desserts as the Language and Literacy Research Center welcomes:

 Dr. Diana Leyva

Assistant Professor of Psychology at Davidson College and visiting scholar at Harvard University, as she presents:

Recipe for Success: How Parents Support Literacy and Math Development Through Food Routines

Everyday family food routines such as grocery shopping and cooking are important venues through which parents can foster children’s literacy and math development. I will discuss five studies I have conducted examining the relation between parental support in family food routines and children’s literacy and math skills. The first four studies used the same methodology to examine concurrent and predictive relations during the preschool and early elementary years in diverse communities, including low-income African American, Latino and Chinese families, low-income Chilean families, and middle-income European American families. The fifth study involved the design and implementation of a family program (“Food For Thought”) that capitalizes on food routines to develop children’s literacy and math skills. This intervention study was implemented in the U.S. with low-income Latino families and yielded positive results in both literacy and math outcomes. Implications for family programs working with minority communities and targeting school readiness skills will be discussed.

Diana Leyva is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Davidson College and currently a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Leyva’s research focuses on how parents support the development of children’s school readiness skills in minority communities including low-income immigrant families in the U.S. and low-income families in Chile. She received her PhD from Clark University and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University and project director of Un Buen Comienzo (A Good Start), a teacher professional program in Chile. She has published in Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly, among other top scientific journals.