TY - JOUR N2 - This paper explores the changing roles of families in children?s developing literacy in the UK in the last century. It discusses how, during this time, understandings of reading and writing have evolved into the more nuanced notion of literacy. Further, in acknowledging changes in written communication practices, and shifting attitudes to reading and writing, the paper sketches out how families have always played some part in the literacy of younger generations; though reading was frequently integral to the lives of many families throughout the past century, we consider in particular the more recent enhancement of children?s literacy through targeted family programmes. The paper considers policy implications for promoting young children?s literacy through work with families. SN - 1741-2919 SP - 551 AV - public UR - https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1468798416645385 ID - discovery10072009 N1 - © The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). JF - Journal of Early Childhood Literacy KW - Literacy KW - reading KW - writing KW - family literacy KW - early childhood KW - young children A1 - Nutbrown, C A1 - Clough, P A1 - Levy, R A1 - Little, S A1 - Bishop, J A1 - Lamb, T A1 - Yamada-Rice, D EP - 569 IS - 4 Y1 - 2017/12// TI - Families? roles in children?s literacy in the UK throughout the 20th century VL - 17 ER -