Research

Early Childhood Literacy remains a prominent issue often not addressed by the current resources provided to children in low-income neighborhoods. Providing books to low-income and at-risk children has been proven as one of the ways to help eradicate the problem of literacy in these neighborhoods. Research shows that early childhood literacy is highly influential in establishing a solid foundation for future learning and academic success. By creating libraries, Books for Kids strives to promote literacy and help children who do not have adequate access to books surmount enormous disadvantages when entering school. The research below provide furthers information on the purpose of early childhood literacy, the effects of inadequate literacy and the impact of the work of Books for Kids has on Childhood Literacy.

Purpose of early childhood literacy
Effects of inadequate literacy
Role of Books for Kids

“85% of who you are- your intellect, your personality, your social skills- is developed by age 5. Let’s invest where it makes the most difference.” – Massachusetts Early Education for All

“Virtually every aspect of early human development, from the brain’s evolving circuitry to the child’s capacity for empathy, is affected by the environments and experiences that begin early in the prenatal period and extend throughout the early childhood years.” – National Research Council, from Neurons to Neighborhoods, The Economic Benefits of Investing in Early Learning (Great Start)

By the age of 2, children who are read to regularly display greater language comprehension, larger vocabularies, and higher cognitive skills than their peers. – Raikes, H., Pan, B.A., Luze, G.J., Tamis-LeMonda, C.S., Brooks-Gunn, J., Constantine, J., Tarullo, L.B., Raikes, H.A., Rodriguez, E. (2006).

“Mother-child book reading in low-income families: Correlates and outcomes during the first three years of life.” Child Development, 77(4).

“Early environments play a large role in shaping later outcomes. Skill begets skill and learning begets more learning. Early advantages cumulate; so do early disadvantages.” – The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children (Committee for Economic Development)

Children who have not already developed some basic literacy practices when they enter school are three to four times more likely to drop out in later years. – National Adult Literacy Survey, 1993

Dr. Connie Juel, a reading expert at the University of Virginia, found that only 10% of students who read poorly at the end of first grade ever read proficiently in later grades – Connie Juel, 1994

According to the National Academy on an Aging Society, 73 billion dollars is the estimated annual cost of low literacy skills in the form of longer hospital stays, emergency room visits, more doctor visits, and increased medication. - “Toward a Literate Nation”, Luis Herrera, Public Libraries, Jan/Feb 2004

85 percent of the juveniles who appear in court and 75 percent of unemployed adults are illiterate – Marilyn Jager Adams, 1990

The most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children is to increase their access to print. Communities ranking high in achievement tests have several factors in common: an abundance of books in public libraries, easy access to books in the community at large and a large number of textbooks per student. – Newman, Sanford, et al. “American’s Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy”; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2000

Children born into poverty are particularly at risk, with reading test scores well below average. In fact, only 16% of children in low-income families score in the upper range, while 50% of children from the most affluent families score in that same upper range – Gershoof,E.,2003

Children in low-income families lack essential one-on-one reading time. A recent report by the Packard and MacArthur Foundations found that the average child growing up in a middle class family has been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading. The average child growing up in a low-income family, in contrast, has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading. – Jeff McQuillan, The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, 1998

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. – National Commission on Reading, 1985

60% of the kindergartners in neighborhoods where children did poorly in school did not own a single book. – The Patterns of Book Ownership and Reading, D. Feitelson and Z. Goldstein, 1986

61 percent of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children. While low-income children have–on average–roughly four children’s books in their homes, a team of researchers recently concluded that nearly two thirds of the low-income families they studied owned no books for their children. – Reading Literacy in the United States, 1996

A recent study shows that while in middle income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children. – Neuman, Susan B. and David K. Dickinson, ed. Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 2. New York, NY: 2006, p. 31.

80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income populations have no age-appropriate books for their children. – Neuman, Susan B., et al. Access for All: Closing the Book Gap for Children in Early Education. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2001, p. 3.