Is Pre-K the Answer for Child Literacy?
To the Editor:
Re “Language-Gap Study Bolsters a Push for Pre-K” (front page, Oct. 22):
As a New York City high school teacher, I am painfully aware how many children start life without the language-building experience necessary to succeed in school and in life, and playing catch-up at 15 is too little too late. Investing in children at the earliest ages is the only way to break the cycle of language-deficient adults raising language-starved children.
We have to stop thinking that helping children is rewarding bad behavior by people who “deserve” to be poor. We should offer free high-quality day care to any child at any time the parents need it, so that the children can get the education they need. (This would also reduce abuse, which also takes a toll on education.)
Investing in these youngest minds would cost billions, but pay for itself a millionfold.
JOHN McGLOIN
Staten Island, Oct. 22, 2013
Staten Island, Oct. 22, 2013
To the Editor:
The shocking gap in language skills of infants and toddlers should bolster a push for adult education rather than for pre-K. We obviously need more pre-K slots to meet demand across New York City, but a better strategy to close the language gap would be to focus on the child’s first and most important teacher, the parent. Parents who have never had any success in school need a hand in promoting their child’s healthy intellectual development.
The research clearly documents that the gap develops long before pre-K; so why wait until a child is 4? And why would we think that a student-teacher ratio of 20 to 1 or more will close the gap more effectively than programs working with parents who have many fewer children to care for?
ANTHONY TASSI
Executive Director, Literacy Partners
Brooklyn, Oct. 22, 2013
Executive Director, Literacy Partners
Brooklyn, Oct. 22, 2013
To the Editor:
Although longtime advocates of the importance of literature for children were heartened by the results of the recent study described in your article, once again it is a case of too little too late. While pre-K is crucial to the literacy of children, especially those from low-income families, far more vital is the children’s room of the local public library.
Most public libraries, many right in the neighborhood and easily accessible, offer programs to children as young as a few months old. These programs provide modeling and encouragement to parents and caregivers to put down their electronic devices, pick up a book, sing a song, play a game and engage in language-based activities that not only provide an introduction to words in beautifully ordered patterns but also give families something to talk about of value and substance.
These programs, and the materials available to support them, build habits crucial to long-term connections to language-based learning. For parents with literacy deficits of their own, the library is the place to house initiatives that boost skill level and confidence.
These programs will help those who care for children discover the satisfaction and solace of a good book and ignite in them the desire to share them with their babies as they grow.
Language is the very root of what it means to be human. It’s the foundation our democracy stands on. And the time to begin acquiring it in a meaningful way begins at birth and is nurtured at the library.
AMY COHN
Marblehead, Mass., Oct. 22, 2013
Marblehead, Mass., Oct. 22, 2013
The writer teaches children’s literature at the college level and has worked as a children’s book editor.
To the Editor:
While expanding the pre-K program is laudable, it is important to note that the children of wealthier parents did not acquire better language skills just because they went to preschool.
Language skills are learned at home, and it is vital that parents interact verbally with their children. But this will never happen unless parents turn off the televisions, smartphones, video game players and computer screens that get in the way of simply talking and reading to their children.
WILLIAM D. PRIESTER
New York, Oct. 22, 2013
New York, Oct. 22, 2013
To the Editor:
Yes, the language-gap study should fuel efforts to expand high-quality preschool programs. But it should do the same for Early Head Start and home visiting programs.
Early Head Start — a program that research has shown helps parents provide more language stimulation and emotional support for their infants and toddlers, and benefits children’s cognitive and language development — serves only 4 percent of eligible children. Similarly, home visiting programs, which can also help parents nurture their very young children’s language growth, reach a fraction of families in need.
Expanding these programs can reduce the language gap early, before it becomes much harder to close, and help parents realize the hopes they have for their children’s success.
SHEILA SMITH
LEE KREADER
New York, Oct. 22, 2013
LEE KREADER
New York, Oct. 22, 2013
The writers are, respectively, director of Early Childhood and director of Child Care and Early Education Research Connections, National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University.
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