What About Those Storytimes?
Posted on May 7, 2014 at 6:00 am
by Wilma Flanagan
Storytime has a long history as a library program, providing early learning opportunities for over a hundred years. In 1899, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh was one of the first libraries to offer storytime, and by the 1940s many libraries were offering these programs as a way of helping young children become intellectually and socially prepared for reading through exposure to books. In the last decade, a great deal has been learned about early brain development. It has been shown that a child’s exposure to reading, playing, singing, talking and writing will help him or her be ready to learn to read.
Getting a child ready to read is important—a gift that lasts a lifetime. One the most important things we can do to help our children succeed in school are to prepare them to learn to read. Effectively including playing, talking, reading, writing and singing, SCLD incorporates recent research on learning strategies into our programs. We use simple stories and repetitive games for the youngest attendees and longer stories with interactivity and simple crafts for the older ones. All storytimes are followed by a play and learn time, in which we give parents and children the chance to play with carefully chosen toys, read books together, or participate in an age-appropriate craft activity.
Learn more about early literacy:
Get Ready to Read
Saroj Ghoting, Early Childhood Literacy Consultant
Tags: education, events, parents, young learners
