Engaging Younger ones into Reading and Role of public Libraries...

For the infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers, the focus is on setting a firm foundation for functional literacy so as to inculcate a reading habit in a child’s early years. The Early Read agenda aims to bring together educators, parents and librarians working collaboratively to impart beneficial pre- reading skills to children.

Learning to read starts long before a child enters school and there is a strong connection between the development a child undergoes early in life and the level of success that he will achieve later in life. For instance, infants who have the pre-reading skill to distinguish the building blocks of speech at six months are found to better at other more complex language skills at two and three years of age. They are also noted to be better at acquiring the skills for learning to read at four and five years of age.

A child’s success in school and throughout life depends largely on the ability to read and children will usually learn reading skills when they begin pre-school. One concern is that children may not be entering formal schools equipped with the fundamental pre-reading or early literacy skills to actively participate in the learning process. There are few free-extra-curricular reading programmes for pre-schoolers outside of childcare and kindergartens. In addition, not all adults understand how important it is to develop skills required for reading in very young children. Such parents are not aware that early literacy skills in children are needed to ensure that they are prepared for learning when they start formal schooling. Hence, raising public awareness of the importance of early childhood literacy is integral to helping young children acquire reading skills.

The Public Libraries is in a strong position to drive these initiatives for the following reasons. First, early literacy development requires direct engagement of parents, and Public Libraries have established robust engagement and programming platforms with families. Second, libraries can provide proportionately more learning time outside of short formal schooling time for pre-schoolers. Third, reading in the early years involves family, social and emotional engagement that is better supported by recreational reading in libraries than a purely academic acquisition of literacy skills in pre-school.

The Early Read agenda has a three-prong approach:

·         Implement measures that support and guide parents and educators understand and adopt early reading habits, equipping them with competencies and toolkits that inculcate good reading skills and habits in children;

·         Establish a strong foundation in the area of reading literacy from a young age; and

Sustain interest in reading as an important lifelong skill to have in all children.

About the Author:
The Author is Ms. Pooja Kataria, PRT, Meenakshi Public School
www.meenakshipublicschool.com