Librarians who visit new parents’ homes are one of the methods tested to improve children’s language development in the “Bookstart” project.
In Härnösand, two librarians call at the home of the parent Hannah Ljungqvist and her daughter Signe.
– Both of these books are quite “bit-friendly”, so they can be tolerated a bit, says Birgitta Norgren while she hands over two new children’s books and a cloth bag with information about reading.
The librarians tell for Hannah Ljungqvist about how important it can be for young children to get used to reading lessons early.
Six-month-old Signe may not be cheering over the books yet, but her sister Astrid, who has turned two, is already crazy about books.
Like all new parents in Härnösand, Hannah Ljungqvist heard about “Bokstart” during a meeting at the child care center when Signe was four months old. Now that she has reached the age of six months, the librarians come to visit, it is followed by more information from BVC and then the work in the preschool continues.
This has not looked exactly the same in the 101 municipalities that tested “Bookstart”, but the overall goal is to strengthen the language development for children aged 0-3 years.
Librarian Helene Lundgren enjoys going out to the parents.
– It feels like a very meaningful job. Remind people that it is important to read to people, both because it is cozy, but also for vocabulary and imagination. It is as much as they get if they learn from the beginning, says Helene Lundgren.
The Government’s proposal in the new budget bill is to double the project’s funding from SEK 10 to 20 million annually and to make the project operations a permanent operation in all of Sweden’s municipalities.
That it can be good to read to children as early as six months of age was not something Hannah Ljungqvist thought when she had her first child.
– Not really this small. But then you were told early on that it was important to read, so I did. Now Astrid is reading for Signe as well, as if mumbling and telling from all the books she has heard so many times, says Hannah Ljungqvist.
Source: ICELAND NEWS