Feature Stories :
Public Libraries' Birth-to-3 programs set children on
path to success
No time is more important in human development than the first three years of life. It is in this time span that the human brain begins to learn the skills that allow for all further physical and mental growth. Wisconsin’s public libraries recognize the important role they can play in reaching and helping educate parents of young children about early learning concepts. As a result, birth-to-three reading programs are emerging as a popular trend in the state’s public libraries.
A 2001 report by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the National Center for Children in Poverty estimated that more than one-third of the nation’s kindergarteners do not have the skills needed to learn when they begin school. Research in early learning and development has shown that school success depends as much on what the child experiences and learns before the age of three as it does on the skills learned between the ages of three and five.
“Kindergarten readiness is crucial for future success in school,” says Shawn Brommer, youth services and outreach coordinator for Wisconsin’s South Central Library System. “Research tells us that children who enter kindergarten knowing the alphabet are most likely to have strong reading skills in the 10th grade.”
One major way public libraries can help all children enter school ready to succeed is by utilizing birth-to-three reading programs.
“They provide an early introduction to the world of literacy and storytime,” adds Sherri Sinniger, youth services librarian for the La Crosse Public Library. “Children also begin to feel comfortable coming in the library and meeting other children.”
The birth-to-three programs allow adults to read and interact with their infants and toddlers, and to get the children to focus on and bond with the parents or care givers. Librarians act as models, demonstrating ways to hold a baby and read a book at the same time; how to do the movements for songs and finger activities; and in general how to get the baby’s attention. The sessions generally culminate with time for parent to read to children – At the Lodi Public Library, Youth Services Librarian Kristine Millard says, “One father even goes to work late on Friday mornings, so he can bring his daughter to Book Babies.”
This is a very different approach than programs for older children, where one of the goals is to help children understand how to act in a group and the librarian is the focus of the children’s attention.
“I teach parents how they can use self-rhymes during diaper changes, feedings and face washings,” says Georgene Kunze, library assistant in the Youth Services Department at the Baraboo Public Library. “We talk about how rhymes can help them ease their babies through difficult times like waiting in line at the grocery store and getting into car seats, high chairs and strollers when baby is cranky.”
Like many birth-to-three programs, the programs held at the public libraries in La Crosse, Baraboo and Lodi feature songs, rhymes, puppets, and lots of repetition.
“At the start, the babies are just blobs absorbing the songs and stories, but it doesn't take long for them to join in the action rhymes and shaker song,” Sinniger says of the 12 to 23-month-old babies in the La Crosse Library’s Baby Storytime sessions. “Soon, they are singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ with the best of them.”
“I have parents say that their toddlers sing rhymes while they're in the car and will start singing our opening song and rhyme and soon as they realize they're coming to the library, so we are growing library lovers!” Kunze adds.
The libraries also offer separate toddler story times that caters to two- and three-year-olds, with simple crafts accompanying weekly story readings. Sinniger says both story time programs, which have been running for five years, are assets to the community. Brommer feels that sentiment is prevalent throughout communities in the state with similar programs.
“By introducing children to books and the literacy skills that are found in every book we share, and by talking to parents about how important it is to read to young children, library programs for ages birth-to-three help children prepare for a lifetime of success,” Brommer says.
Kunze agrees, saying, “Anything we can do to nurture the parent-child bond benefits all of us. We live in a very fast-paced world that pushes children to be sophisticated and pressures parents to buy all kinds of gadgets so their kids will be ‘smarter’ -- when time together spent reading, playing and singing are really the best gifts of all.”