Before children enter kindergarten, their learning is entirely directed by parents and caregivers. Access to books can make a huge difference in preparing children for kindergarten, regardless of whether they are reading. And every child has access to books thanks to Books from Birth, the public library system, and other community resources. Books open doors for our kids, but how do we get our kids to open books? Help kids get an early start on reading, and nurture the habit. Here are a few suggestions:
Early childhood language and literacy development should be viewed as a critical issue not just by children’s families and teachers, but by business leaders, civic activists, nonprofit workers, child-care professionals—in other words, everyone who cares about the future of our children and our community.
As the director of the Centre for Child Studies, Dr. O’Neill has the ongoing opportunity to observe the language abilities of children. Part of her research focuses on the ways in which children communicate, and how this communication develops. “What has really surprised me is just how incredibly rapid the growth of children’s language is,” says Dr. O’Neill. “They go from two-word speech at age 2 to complex sentences by age 3 that deal with a huge range of topics.”
The fundamentals of reading are learned before children reach school. Even immediately after birth, the areas of the brain that store language skills are already in place. So it’s clear that experiences during the first few years of life play an important role in how children learn language and reading skills.
On March 12, The Urban Child Institute will host our annual Brain Awareness Night. This year the topic will be literacy and language development in the early years, and we are pleased to welcome Dr. J. Helen Perkins as one of our two speakers. For Dr. Perkins, a professor at the University of Memphis, interest in literacy began at an early age.
When we talk about the quality of childcare, there is a factor that’s hard to reckon in dollars and cents: the quality of the relationship between children and their caregivers. Studies show that a child's emotional connection to caregivers has a big influence on the way she adapts and grows. If we want to place kids in the best possible center-based care, we should pay attention to these points.