Libraries and Emergent Literacy

Parent and Caregiver Education

Introduction

History

Brain Research

Pediatric Partners

Parent Education

Advocacy

Conclusion

Site Map

References

William Caskey

LIBR 500: Foundations of Information Technology

School of Library, Archival, and Information Science

University of British Columbia

Last updated April 15, 2005

Storytime is for Parents

Pediatricians are effective at delivering the message about the importance of reading, rhyming, and singing to children from birth onward. Librarians can also be very effective at educating caregivers in the course of storytime sessions.
Children's services staff can pepper their storytime sessions for preschool children with tips for caregivers on how to nurture childrens' rapidly growing brains. For instance, a storyteller might tell parents, "Did you know that hearing language actually changes the structure of babies' brains? Language builds more connections between neurons in the brain. So the more you talk with your baby, the more connections she will have in her brain." 10

Talking to parents and caregivers who already bring their children to storytime or other programming in the library is certainly helpful, but it could also be called singing to the choir. Many of the children and parents who most need to be reached are not regular library users. That's why there's a growing emphasis on the need for librarians and others to go out into the community to model reading books to kids. An early example of cooperation in between agencies has been the Mother Goose program in Canada. Developed in Toronto in a social services context, the program was adopted by the Vancouver Public Library in 1998 to reach parents of young childen who aren't regular library users. The Man on the Moon program tries to reach male caregivers of pre-school children and to give them ways to share langage activities like nursery rhymes, singing, and word games. 11

Outreach Outside the Library

Outreach has been part of children's services since the proliferation of public libraries across North America. In city parks, settlement houses, and schools, children's librarians have been doing outreach since the early part of the 20th century. Vancouver Public Library has recently approved the hiring or five new outreach children's librarians for just this kind of work. The Kalamazoo Public Library' has taken a similar approach. That library's children's services department sends librarians out into the community to deliver its Partners in Reading Programs to any group of parents about the importance of sharing books with children.