Can We Inoculate Children Against Illiteracy?
By Caroline Blakemore
Yes we can, if we start early enough. At present in America most of the attempts at solutions to illiteracy have been in the form of interventions after kindergarten. This is too late. Language develops starting at birth; children begin speaking between one-and-a-half and three years. Where do these words come from? They come from hearing adults and family members speak and read to babies and toddlers from birth (and even in the womb).
Research clearly states that the amount of words heard daily from adults speaking and reading aloud to babies before three determines a child’s reading ability, IQ, and success in life.
It is this research that explains the present gap in reading abilities between the children from professional classes and those from parents in the low socioeconomic stratum. Since we know the causes (low word or vocabulary input), we know the solution. It is now time to act. There are already models and proposed solutions in place to mount a campaign to Inoculate Children Against Illiteracy. Our book, Baby Read-Aloud Basics has all the information needed to serve as the handbook for Illiteracy Inoculations.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways to Inoculate for Illiteracy:
* Start at the beginning with the OB/GYN visit. The doctor gives parents a flyer (in various languages) on the importance of reading to babies for proper language development and future school success. Many parents including some immigrant populations don’t realize they are their children’s most important teachers. This flyer would also point out the negative effects of too much TV.
* Then at the time of birth in the hospital, parents watch an instructional DVD with examples of what reading to newborns and babies looks like. They are also given another flyer, plus a packet of baby books with instructions on how and when to read them. Parents who don’t know how to read, or read in a different language will learn that they can “read” the illustrations and/or that reading in their own language counts as word input. They don’t have to read in English for the inoculation to be effective!
* At the first “well baby” visit to the pediatrician, parents are asked how the reading is going, and get more help and advice. There already is a program (Reach Out and Read) in place, but it starts too late at 6 months, and not all pediatricians are using it. Parents will learn that Illiteracy Inoculations are just as important as childhood disease inoculations, and that illiteracy and all the suffering it causes, is a disease.
* The President of the United States and the Secretary of Education can fully support such an Inoculation process by advocating a universal TV campaign not unlike that to stop tobacco use (which was a huge success). Many experts could weigh in. For example, showing how this widening literacy gap becomes a source of social instability, Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen states that, “illiteracy and innumeracy are a greater threat to humanity than terrorism.”*
* Preschools and elementary schools could reach out to new parents and have them come to school for training (this has already been accomplished in a few areas, but needs to be universal).
* Aides are trained (through doctors or schools) to go in to homes and show parents how and when to read to their babies. They could bring books with them to give or loan (There is a model for this program, see #1 under research below).
* Baby book banks could be established to ensure a massive supply of books that could be circulated according to need.
* Adult literacy classes already in place incorporate the knowledge that is in our book, Baby Read-Aloud Basics, so that parents, grandparents, and family members can learn how to prevent the spread of illiteracy in their own families.
* Funding for the above Illiteracy Inoculation Campaign is enacted through Congress and The President and would cost far less than the Billion a year spent on the failed No Child Left Behind.
The costs in human suffering and societal chaos we are now experiencing with our over crowded jails, 82 % of the inmates of which are high school drop outs, and 60% illiterate or semi literate. We now do not have enough candidates to fill the engineering positions needed in our high tech industries and have to rely on those better educated from China and India. Illiteracy also causes poor choices in life, in the home, the marketplace, the jury box, and the voting booth. All this adds up to insurmountable suffering that is similar to what is experienced in third world countries. As an advanced nation, we should not only be concerned with our illiteracy at home, but take our Illiteracy Inoculation Campaign to other parts of the world where illiteracy (that leads to overpopulation and poverty) is rampant.
Every parent wants to do the right things to ensure their child’s happiness and success. Please join what is surely one of the greatest tasks of our time: to inform parents that they are their children’s most important teachers and that it is the responsibility of all of us to educate children to achieve the levels of literacy and education necessary to meet the critical challenges we face in a time like no other. A time that requires a critical mass of enlightened problems solvers to take on what many consider challenges that could affect the continuation of life on our planet.
Below is some of the research on which the handbook for the Inoculation Against Illiteracy Campaign is based:
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Babies who were read to regularly starting at six months had a 40% increase in receptive vocabulary by the time they were eighteen months of age. Babies in the study who were not read to had only a 16% increase in receptive vocabulary. This study was accomplished with inner city parents, who formerly didn’t read to their babies, but were given books and instructed how to read them to their babies at bedtime. At the end of the study, parents revealed that reading to their children was the best part of their day, and they could see how important it was. It brought them closer to their children.
Pamela C. High, MD and her associates at the Child Development Center at Rhode Island Hospital conducted this study. (See PEDIATRICS, Vol.105 No.4, April 2000.)
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Children who hear a wealth of language before the age of three will experience success at school. The Hart-Risley long-term study shows that it’s the amount of language a child hears per hour before the age of three that determines future academic success. This language must be positive and articulate and must be directed at the child in the form of a conversation that includes questions and following the child’s lead in determining where the conversation goes. This study also shows that children who have experienced an abundance of language in the form of talk and read-alouds will have heard 32 million more words by the time they are four than children who haven’t had a language-rich environment.
Drs. Betty Hart and Todd Risley T., Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children (Baltimore: Brooks Publishing, 1996). p. 98.
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Children’s books contain three times more unusual (rare) words than the everyday conversation between parent and child. These rare words are the words that children need not only to read more difficult books as they go through school but also for higher level and creative thinking skills required for today’s digital, connected world. There are 5,000 most commonly used words that we speak most of the time, and there are an additional 5,000 words less often used. Rare words rank above the 10,000 word Common Lexicon and play a critical role in reading success. Ordinary everyday spoken language is in the 400-600 range , which is quite low. The word “the” for example, ranks #1 as the most commonly spoken word, while the word “amplifier” is ranked at 16,000. By hearing the rich language in children’s books, children develop the vocabulary they need to love and excel in reading.
Donald P. Hays and Margaret G. Ahrens, “Vocabulary simplification for Children: A Special Case of ‘Motherese,’ ” Journal of Child Language, Vol.15, 1988, pp.395-411.
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Excessive TV viewing in preschoolers can delay reading skills. Children in “heavy” TV households are less likely to read.
Victoria J. Rideout, MA, Elizabeth A. Vandewater, Ph.D, Ellen A. Wartella, PhD, in partnership with the Henry J. Kaiser Family foundation and the Children’s Digital Media Centers (CDMC) 2003.
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Reading aloud to children from birth and throughout the grades at school is the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading.
Anderson, R, Ph.D, Hiebert, E., Ph.D, Scott, J, and Wildinson, I., Ph.D, Becoming a Nation of Readers, Champaign, Il, Center for the Study of Reading, 1983.
*Lester R. Brown, Plan B 3.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilizations, p. 133
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