Low-Income Atlanta Households’ First Graders Have Fraction of Reading Experience
There was an article published in the September issue of the Atlanta INtown paper about how income level in families correlates with the number of hours babies and small children actually spend being “read to.” According to the article, middle-class children entering the first grade have logged an average of 1,000-1,700 hours of reading while low-income kids enter the same grade with, get this: a mere average of 25 hours. That’s right: 25 hours versus over a 1,000. Here’s kind of a no-brainer question: why?
The article did not address this question so much with how to approach a solution, which, to me, is logical. However, I feel we should also be considering what makes these low-income households so much more likely to have basically illiterate children entering first grade. I mean, how do these kids even know the alphabet when the amount of time they have spent with a book is the equivalent of one full day?
One could argue that low-income families are less likely to have a nanny to provide one-on-one care (and, in turn, reading opportunities) with the kids. There is also a possibility that it is not even that extreme; maybe both parents have to work, or it is a single-parent household. In such a situation, the child must be put in day care, where one-on-one care is notoriously infrequent.
Regardless, if you are going to have a child, you ought to at least make an effort to care for and spend time with that child. Regardless of the age, time spent with a parent or guardian cannot be replicated or replaced in those earlier years, and the lack becomes obviously apparent at later ages. Reading is one of those bonding activities that are so crucial to early development.
According to child literacy.com, “Reading to your child is the single most valuable thing you can do. It gives experience of different types of language, rhythms and sounds; research shows that pre-school children who are exposed to plenty of language (books and conversation) tend to do better at school; (and) it teaches about many topics which wouldn’t come up in conversation.”
I guess it just astounds me that even parents with very little time and money cannot find more than one full day out of six years to read with their child.
One great thing to come out of the depressing article in INtown was the recent program, started by the Fulton Public Library System and Grady Hospital, in which books and information along with a library card application are given to new mothers. However, the program at the time did not really have enough funds to always provide this, so they encourage people to donate books, time and money.
It is important to give to these drives and to help hand out information to these young, husbandless, jobless, or just generally not-very-lucky mothers who don’t understand the importance of reading to their children, even from birth.
It breaks my heart to see so many children go without that experience. Giving books or time is something so inexpensive and easy that the effort is one nearly every college student can make, especially with Grady Hospital just a block away. The potential difference in these children’s lives rests in the hands of those who can afford to give, if only just a little.
