A project to support new parents and carers to help their children develop early reading and language skills will be launched at Newport Community Hub next week.
The Grow Your Reader initiative will encourage early literacy and language development through a series of events and activities, as well as provide links to early years support services.
Presented by Hobsons Bay Libraries, the project incorporates:
- a free Grow your Reader book bag for every new child born in Hobsons Bay. Bags will include a board book along with useful information about reading to young children, and information about family literacy and health services within Hobsons Bay
- another free Grow your Reader book bag for children attending their two and three-year-old Maternal and Child Health check-ups. These bags will include a book with accompanying learning activities, information for rich language development, and library membership and programs, and
- a series of parenting support programs throughout the year, including monthly pre-natal, and early literacy information sessions
A child’s brain grows faster in the first five years than at any other time in their life. Grow your Reader highlights the importance of sharing language with young children, a time considered as ‘a golden window of development’ for learning language and building learning capabilities.
It’s envisaged that the program will create home environments that foster engagement with books and reading from a young age, which will not only be beneficial for the child and their families but also the communities in which they live, grow, learn and work.
