By Dr Suzanne M Egan (October 2023)
Every October in Ireland hundreds of events take place in libraries, bookshops, schools, arts venues and cultural centres, to celebrate books and the joy of reading. The annual Children’s Book Festival encourages reading from a young age and promotes the benefits of reading with children. The Festival has run for over 30 years now and is part of Libraries Ireland Right to Read initiative, a national programme to promote literacy and reading development for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Among the many events taking place this year to celebrate the Children’s Book Festival are magical story telling sessions, puppet shows, author visits and competitions. These events are great fun for children and families, and also provide opportunities for children and parents to connect in person with writers, illustrators and storytellers. While the Children’s Book Festival is a lot of fun, there are also some serious benefits to reading that have been supported by a wealth of research. Beyond benefits for children, there are also benefits for parents, and even professional benefits those involved in delivering reading related initiatives.
"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled 'This could change your life.'"
One benefit of reading, evidenced by decades of research, relates to supporting the development of language and literacy skills in children (see Hoyne and Egan, 2019, for a review). The foundations for reading are laid down in the earliest years by parents and caregivers sharing a book with a child and reading to them. Reading a story can provide an opportunity to learn new words and about new things the child might not easily experience in person. Early shared reading with young children also supports the transition to school and has been associated with later academic success too.
In addition to language and literacy benefits, other research also shows there are benefits for other aspects of development too. In research we published last year in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, the findings highlighted the benefits of reading for reasoning skills, as well as vocabulary skills. The study analysed data from over nine thousand 3-year-olds gathered as part of Growing Up in Ireland, a national study of children that follows them from childhood into adulthood.
We examined whether the amount of time spent in different types of activities, including reading, was associated with scores on standardised tests of non-verbal reasoning and of vocabulary. The findings showed that regular reading with young children had a positive influence on non-verbal reasoning scores, as well as on vocabulary scores. On average, the 3-year-olds that were read to everyday at home had reasoning scores 7 points higher, and vocabulary scores 12 points higher, compared with those that were not read to at home.
The benefits of reading with children not only relate to the children themselves, but also to parents, and caregivers. In another study we published last year, in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, we asked parents of infants about their own reading habits and about what they enjoyed most when reading with their baby. Using parental surveys and interviews, the findings showed that parents’ own enjoyment of reading was positively associated with how often they read with their baby, the number of children’s books they had at home, and their hope for their child’s future enjoyment of reading.
The benefits of reading with children not only relate to the children themselves, but also to parents, and caregivers.
Interestingly, parents highlighted that some of main benefits of reading with their infants were related to socio-emotional development and the time spent together, rather than the often reported language and literacy benefits. Parents mentioned how they liked seeing their baby’s response to books (e.g., laughing, pointing, babbling), as well as how it supported their bedtime routine. Other family members got involved in reading as well, highlighting the benefits of reading and story-time in strengthening family relationships.
Because of the multitude of benefits from reading, books are often used as part of initiatives and interventions to support the development of children and their families. One such initiative, described above, is the Children’s Book Festival. Other initiatives to support reading in families, and particularly from infancy or early childhood, are book gifting schemes. These schemes gift books to families to keep and there are many schemes that operate around the world. These include BookTrust in the UK, Reach Out and Read in the USA and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which operates in a number of countries, including parts of Ireland (see Egan et al., 2020 for a review of national and international infant book gifting schemes).
Book gifting schemes support many families with reading, and are often in wide ranging geographical areas, such as the First 5 Little Book at Bedtime initiative which was launched this month by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. All families in Ireland with children aged 4 and under can collect a free bedtime story from their local library. However, other initiatives involving books can take a more targeted approach to support particular families or children with particular needs. One such targeted scheme, to support children with a language delay, is the Early Talkboost programme. This programme was developed by Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) in the UK and is currently being trialed in Ireland.
Early Talkboost is a 9 week intervention for young children focused on reading, and has books the children can bring home to read with their parents, and puppets and toys to bring the books to life.
Early Talkboost is a nine-week targeted intervention for young children delivered by early years educators within early childhood settings, with the support of SLTs in Ireland. The intervention focuses on reading, and has books the children can bring home to read with their parents and puppets and other toys to bring the books to life. Having been awarded funding earlier this year by Tusla, the programme is currently being evaluated by a multidisciplinary team of researchers in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Reflective Pedagogy and Early Childhood Studies in Mary Immaculate College.
Preliminary findings are very positive. Drawing on survey and interview data provided by parents, early years educators and speech and language therapists the findings highlight the benefits of the programme for young children. These identified benefits for the children, consistent with previous research in the UK, include improved listening and comprehension skills, as well as improved expressive language and vocabulary skills, as well an increased confidence in their language abilities. Another finding is that besides the children and their families, there also seem to be benefits for the professionals involved in delivering the scheme.
The early years educators indicated that it had increased their own language knowledge and boosted their confidence in referring children for a language assessment. The SLTs involved in the programme suggested the intervention may result in a reduced caseload for them, and because it’s occurring in a community setting it may reach more families that need it. The benefits for professional practice we’re seeing with the Early Talkboost programme are consistent with other findings too. In an infant book gifting scheme we evaluated a few years ago, the librarians and public health nurses who were involved in giving books to families also highlighted benefits for their professional practice.
Author Helen Exley once noted that "Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled 'This could change your life.'" Books can transport us to magical places, far away lands, imaginary islands and move us backwards and forwards through time. They can elicit emotions such as happiness, sadness, joy, grief, guilt, regret, excitement and surprise, as we go on a journey with the characters. Beyond this joy that books and reading bring to our lives though, are the added psychological and developmental benefits for children and families, as well as benefits to the professionals involved in book related initiatives.
Dr Mary Moloney and Dr Suzanne Egan, Mary Immaculate College.
So be careful – next time you open a book, gift one to someone else, or read with a child, it really could change someone’s life!
