programs supporting early literacy packet.pdf

Connecting Through Talk

One of the core messages in Connecting Through Talk is that any effort that supports the quality and quantity of parent–child communication will have long-lasting positive impacts on children’s development. Section II of the book provides snapshots of more than a dozen programs that support language and literacy development by coaching parents and providing books for all young children.

Parent Coaching Programs

Play and Learning Strategies (PALS)

Mission: To strengthen the bond among infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their parents and enhance young children’s language, social, and cognitive growth in order to promote positive developmental outcomes.
Brief: PALS originated in Texas as a home-visit program available in English and Spanish and implemented by trained parent educators through 90-minute home visits (10 sessions for the infant curriculum and 12 sessions for the toddler curriculum per year). Some states are adapting the program for implementation in group settings and with more diverse populations. Training includes having parents view and discuss video examples of parent-child interactions and guiding parents in practicing the demonstrated techniques with their own children.
Website: www.childrenslearninginstitute.org/programs/play-and-learning-strategies-pals

Video Interaction Project (VIP)

Mission: Empowering parents and providing children from low-income families with an early foundation to succeed.

Thirty Million Words Project (TMW)

Mission: Develops and tests language-focused interventions that are being designed for use through different delivery mechanisms, including the medical system and home visiting programs.
Brief: TMW is a set of related projects that are working through health-delivery systems to help parents and programs support language development among low-income populations and children with hearing loss.
Website: www.tmwcenter.uchicago.edu

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY)

Mission: To help vulnerable children achieve long-term academic success, improve parent–child relationships, and increase parent involvement in their children’s schools and communities.
Brief: HIPPY is a long-standing home visiting program focused on families of children ages 3–5 that is highly scripted and has a clear academic focus. It has a widespread presence in the United States and is available in several other countries around the world. Its research base includes studies conducted in Texas, New York, and Arkansas, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services evaluated it as being an evidence-based early childhood home visiting service delivery model for the general population.
Website: www.hippyusa.org

Save the Children

Brief: Save the Children was established after World War I and now serves children in 120 countries, focusing on the most deprived and marginalized and addressing five broad areas of need—health and nutrition, education, child protection, child poverty, and protecting the rights of children. Literacy and child development outcomes are integral to its focus.
Website: www.savethechildren.net

Book Giveaway Programs

Reach Out and Read (ROR)

Mission: To promote language and literacy development in early childhood by having pediatricians work with families during well-baby/well-child visits.
Brief: ROR works with pediatricians to make literacy a part of each well-baby/well-child visit. During a doctor’s visit, the pediatrician gives a new book to the child and prescribes that the parents regularly read aloud to their infants and young children. The pediatrician models this process as needed to enhance parent–child language interaction and help promote the child’s brain development.
Website: www.hippyusa.org

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

Mission: To inspire a love of books and reading in preschool-age children by ensuring that they have their very own, age-appropriate library of books at home.
Brief: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library coordinates the process of ensuring that every enrolled child, regardless of income level, receives a free, new, developmentally appropriate book monthly, from birth to their fifth birthday. Its goal is to inspire a love of books and reading in preschool-age children by ensuring that they have their very own age-appropriate library of books. In 2014, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library earned a Best Practice Award from the U.S. Library of Congress for addressing social barriers to literacy.
Website: www.imaginationlibrary.com

Family Reading Partnership (FRP)

Mission: To create a culture of literacy in which all children have early, frequent, and pleasurable experience with books, together with a loved one, as a special part of everyday family life, right from the start.

Bookstart (BoekStart)

Mission: Bookstart is a program that aims to promote reading with very young children and allow parents with young children to enjoy books.
Brief: Bookstart programs work to encourage parents of newborns to read to their infants. The programs operate through local libraries and supply parents with a broad selection of books and information about new books. Tips for reading to children are provided through print and online materials as well as in-person meetings.
Website: www.boekstartpro.nl/home.html

Sifriyat Pijama and Maktabat al-Fanoos

Mission: To promote early literacy and cultural values through book distribution in schools.
Brief: Sifriyat Pijama and Maktabat al-Fanoos are nationwide, parallel programs in Israel promoting reading among Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking families, respectively. Books are delivered to teachers for the children and classroom, along with supporting lesson plans.
Website: Sifriyat Pijama-www.eng.pjisrael.org Maktabat al-Fanoos-www.al-fanoos.org/english