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Vice Mayor Greg Stanton's
Arcadia News Column
April 2003
From the start: reading begins here and now
It is never too early to become your child's first teacher. As chair of the City Council's education subcommittee, I know how important it is for parents to begin to work with their children on reading in the years before formal education starts. Unfortunately, 35 percent of our children begin public school with such low skill and motivation levels that they are at substantial risk for early academic difficulties.
Phoenix Public Library's mission is to create partnerships with families to foster skills for caregivers to prepare children to be successful readers. In support of this goal, the City Council is partnering with the Public Library Association (PLA) to start a program called Early Learning Initiatives. I am proud that our library will be one of fourteen demonstration sites nationwide to participate in the initiative. PLA has collaborated with education experts in the field of emergent literacy to develop specific practices, which can be used by libraries to help parents get their children ready to read.
Emergent literacy is what children know about reading before they can actually read or write. Young children's emergent literacy skills are the building blocks for later reading and writing. Children learn these skills before they start school, and this begins in infancy. From birth throughout the preschool years, children develop knowledge of spoken language, the sounds that form words, letters, writing and books. This is the beginning of the abilities that children need to be able to learn to read and write in school.
It's the parents who need to take the initiative to work early with their children. Materials have been developed for various age groups to help library staff present research based programs for caregivers.
Our plan divides preschoolers into 3 areas:
- Pre-talkers - babies to 2 years
- Talkers - 2 to 3 years
- Pre-readers - 3-4 years
By simply providing a story time for their children, they can bond with their babies and pre-talkers, help to develop an awareness of different sounds and inflections with talkers and teach pre-readers to have a conversation about a book and become storytellers themselves.
Much research is being done today proving that a baby's brain is the least developed of all organs at birth. A caregiver has the obligation to form a baby's brain or wire that brain by providing stimulating and appropriate experiences. They can do this by attending to a child, forming strong relationships that develop security, love, and trust, and by talking, listening and reading to a child.
Phoenix Public Library has instituted new programs for children from birth to twenty-four months and their parents and caregivers. More than 70 families participate in these "Bonding with Baby" programs each week at three of the city's library sites. The public library is the perfect place to disseminate this important information to parents and I am a supporter of their motto, "From the Start: Reading Begins Here. And Now."
For more information about the Early Literacy Initiative or other programs with families, call 602-534-2021 or go to
www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org.
As always, if you have comments or questions, please feel free to call me anytime at 602-262-7491 or send e-mail to greg.stanton@phoenix.gov.
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