Research Regular early reading between parents and children is a simple activity with profound, lifelong effects. Whether or not a family has a culture of reading in the early years can be the difference between a child on the path to strong academic achievement and a child whose early deficiencies will more than likely increase over time. Since 1985, the National Commission on Reading has noted that the "single most significant factor influencing a child's early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school."
35% of U.S. children enter kindergarten unprepared to learn, with most lacking the vocabulary and sentence structure crucial to school success. - Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Report 50% of low income children enter first grade up to two years behind their peers in preschool skills. - Brizius & Foster Children from low-income homes enter school with ¼ of the vocabulary of students from middle-class homes. - Children's Defense Fund Although many experiences are said to contribute to early literacy, no other single activity is regarded as important as the shared book experience between caregivers and children. - Dr. Susan Neuman, Asst. U.S. Secretary of Education We know that children's understandings about literacy emerge in infancy and are continually in the process of being shaped and clarified by countless experiences and active engagement with oral and written language, books and stories. -International Reading Association & National Association for Education of Young Children Children who have not already developed some basic literacy practices when they enter school are three to four times more likely to drop out in later years. - National Adult Literacy Survey A recent study showed that while in middle income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children. - Handbook of Early Literacy Research , Vol. 2, 2006 The human brain develops more rapidly between birth and age five than during any other subsequent period. -National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: 85% of the foundation for a child's intellect, personality and skills is formed by age 5. Children are born ready to learn. - Brain Initiative, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, 2006 Studies have found that by age 3, the observed cumulative vocabulary for children in professional families was 1,116, for working class families it was about 740, and for welfare families it was 525. -Hart & Risley, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children, 1995 By age three, children from privileged families have heard 30 million more words than children from poor families. By kindergarten the gap is even greater. The consequences are catastrophic. -Hart, Betty, & Risley, Todd R. (2003). The Early Catastrophe:The 30 Million Word Gap. American Educator, 27 (1), 4-9. Although there have been long-standing debates about how much the early years really matter in the larger scheme of lifelong development, out conclusion is unequivocal: What happens during the first months and years of life matters a lot, not because this period of development provides an indelible blueprint for adult well-being, but because it sets either a sturdy or fragile stage for what follows. -National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, 2000 While 85% of a child's core brain structure is formed at an early three, less than 4% of public investments on education and development have occurred by that time. -Child and Family Policy Center & Voices for America's Children, Early Learning Left Out: An Examination of Public Investments in Education and Development by Child Age, 2004 Investments in high-quality early education programs have the highest rate of return of any social investment. -James Heckman, University of Chicago Economist and Nobel Laureate, |