Burnaby NewsLeader
By Wanda Chow
A program credited with encouraging parents to read to their babies and boosting early literacy needs more than $250,000 to continue after the provincial government cut its funding earlier this year.
Since 2005, Books for BC Babies has provided free kits to every baby born in the province, each of which include a board book, a CD of rhymes and songs and information on library resources and how to promote early childhood development.
In 2009, the program distributed more than 40,000 kits, mainly during the first visit by a public health nurse to a home after a baby’s birth. While organizers have enough materials to produce kits for the rest of the year, they need to raise more than $250,000 in donations and sponsorships to carry on in 2011. Each kit costs about $7 to produce.
But while the materials are an integral part of the program, Edel Toner-Rogala, Burnaby’s chief librarian, stressed it’s not just about the free book.
“Reading to your baby isn’t just about the book,” said Toner-Rogala, of Burnaby Public Library, one of the provincewide partners in the program.
“It’s about exposing your child to language and the importance of speaking to your baby. People underestimate that. Children learn to speak by being spoken to, spoken with.”
It’s an introduction to language skills that is fundamental to all future development and learning, she said, adding when parents read with their children it also builds the bond between them.
“It’s all about getting them ready to read. It’s about recognizing the magic. There’s this sense that these markings on this piece of paper somehow translates to sounds and ideas that I can understand.”
A 2008 survey of parents in the program showed some had not thought of reading to newborns before. As a result of Books for BC Babies, more than 60 per cent were looking at books with their babies more often, 60 per cent were checking out baby materials from the library and 91 per cent planned to attend library programs for parents and infants.
The survey also showed the program impacted parents directly as well, with 50 per cent saying they were using the library more often, and 34 per cent joining the library for the first time.
Toner-Rogala noted that when babies are spoken and read to, benefits such as language skills take place no matter what language it happens in. Books for BC Babies even provides bilingual books in several different languages to promote an improved sense of cultural identity and for non-English-speaking caregivers, such as grandparents, to participate.
For more information or to donate, visit http://books4babies.bclibrary.ca/for-supporters.
...in Okanagan Child Magazine.
Books 4 BC Babies in today's Vancouver Sun.
Author's 'uncle enzymes' fuelled bestselling book for newborns BY DARAH HANSEN, VANCOUVER SUN Richard Van Camp knew he was on to something special from the moment he began writing Welcome Song for Baby.
The Edmonton-based author was commissioned to write the book in 2006 just as close friends announced they were expecting their first child, followed quickly by news his brother and sister-in-law were also about to become new parents.
"I had uncle enzymes coursing through me," Van Camp recalled of his literary inspiration. "I wanted to put all that love, all those good wishes into this little lullaby.
The result was a Canadian bestseller, with parents and newborns across the country responding warmly to the board book's stunning photography and endearing storyline.
"Hey-yah-hey. Hey-yah-hey. Heyyah-hey. Dear one, cherished one, loved one. You have made the world beautiful again," the story reads -- its refrain a rhythmic tribute to Van Camp's aboriginal roots as a member of the Dogrib Dene from the Northwest Territories.
For Rhian Piprell, co-chair of Books for BC Babies, Welcome Song's unexpected success was one more reason to celebrate the importance of early literary.
Piprell's organization commissioned the story as part of its continuing mission to supply new moms and dads in the province with tools they need to engage their children in reading, as early as possible. Each year the organization releases a book by a Canadian author to about 42,000 families across B.C., along with a CD of songs and an information guide encouraging parents to read to their newborns.
"Reading, talking and singing to newborns are the best ways to build early language and literacy skills -- skills that impact a child's lifelong development," Piprell said.
"By providing a parenting resource at a crucial stage of a child's life, we can give kids the best chance at future success."
Hillel Goelman, an education professor at the University of B.C., said there is significant research to support the notion that children can learn much from books, even at a young age.
Early on, Goelman said, children associate positive emotions from the sensation of being held and cuddled by their parents or caregivers during storytime. "It creates an expectation that reading is a very pleasurable activity. It's fun," he said.
Reading is also a critical element in a child's vocabulary development. "They are building up a comprehension, the ability to understand what words mean," Goelman said.
Van Camp said he's thrilled to be part of a child's lifelong love of literacy.
"The things that you are passing on to a growing miracle have to be chosen really carefully so that's where Welcome Song for Baby really came from.
"It's really from that deep love that I have for humanity and wanting to pass on a great spirit every night it was read, wherever it was read." To learn more about Books for BC Babies, and how to contribute, go to http://books4babies.bclibrary.ca/