Really Good Research

Some persuasive evidence to share with those who serve young children

By Renea Arnold and Nell Colburn -- School Library Journal, 11/1/2006

The past two decades have seen an explosion of research in early learning and related fields. We’ve found it a fascinating challenge to think about how this research affects the work we do as librarians, and in particular, what pieces of information we would most like to share with parents and other adults who live or work with young children. Some of this information can be powerful when used in grant requests or talks with library partners, legislators, and even library administrators or board members.

Here are some statements from the research that we’ve found ourselves using again and again:

“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.”—Susan B. Neuman, “Books Make a Difference: A Study of Access to Literacy” (Reading Research Quarterly, July–September 1999)

“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.”—Richard C. Anderson and others, Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the National Commission on Reading (University of Illinois, 1985)

“Children who are read to three or more times a week are nearly twice as likely as other children to show three or more skills associated with emerging literacy.”—Christine W. Nord and others, “Home Literacy Activities and Signs of Children’s Emerging Literacy, 1993 and 1999” (National Center for Education Statistics, November 1999)

“The relationship between the skills with which children enter school and their later academic performance is strikingly stable. For instance, research has shown that there is nearly a 90% probability that a child will remain a poor reader at the end of the fourth grade if the child is a poor reader at the end of the first grade. Further, knowledge of alphabet letters at entry into kindergarten is a strong predictor of reading ability in 10th grade.”—Ernest L. Boyer, Ready to Learn: A Mandate for the Nation (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Testing, 1991)

We think this selection of research strongly validates the work youth librarians do to empower parents to read to their young children in the home. It especially supports public library outreach programs that spread the word about early literacy, particularly since most of these programs strive to reach at-risk populations.