Read to Me! bag
Numerous programs and initiatives across the country promoting the importance of developing literacy skills early in life continue to encourage and make a difference. From literacy programs at birth, to parents reading in American Sign Language to their deaf or hard-of-hearing children, the efforts to increase literacy skills are endless.
Babies in Nova Scotia receive early literacy programs within 24 hours of birth – Read to Me! , a non-profit, hospital-based early literacy program delivered at the hospital bedside is given free to every baby born or adopted in Nova Scotia. Over 70,000 families have received the bright yellow Read to Me! bag since the program’s launch in 2002. Developed by a group of provincial partners with the shared goal of addressing low literacy rates in the province after results of the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey showed that over half the population of Nova Scotia struggled with basic reading and writing.
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Improving Literacy Skills for Deaf Children through Early Intervention - Preliminary findings from a Ryerson study indicate that deaf and hard-of-hearing children may benefit significantly when parents read to them using American Sign Language (ASL). Kristin Snoddon, a postdoctoral fellow in Ryerson University’s School of Early Childhood Education (ECE), leads a 10-month research project teaching hearing parents of deaf children how to read children’s classics using ASL. ”Shared reading and parent-child interaction are critical supports for improving literacy skills,” Snodden says.
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