Early Literacy Development & Utah Kids Ready to Read!

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ULA is proud to help sponsor the Uintah County Library Early Literacy Video Project. The best ways to prepare your child to read are talking and reading with them. It can be as simple as narrating your day together. Spread the word and share the video!

Want more early literacy information? Utah Kids Ready to Read! provides information, training, technical assistance, and resources on emergent literacy for parents and caregivers, Utah librarians and their community partners.

Early literacy skills are what a child needs to know before he/she learns to read and write. The goals of early literacy are to increase the frequency and intention with which parents and caregivers:

  • Talk to their children
  • Share books with their children
  • Bring their children to the library

Early literacy is important because:

  • 35% of children enter kindergarten without the necessary skills to be successful students (Ready to Learn, a 1991 Carnegie Foundation report).
  • there is a 90% probability that a child who struggles with reading in kindergarten will struggle with reading in fourth grade.
  • the Nation’s Report Card (2005) states that 36% of fourth graders and 27% of eighth graders are reading below basic skill level.

Early literacy and libraries go hand in hand because:

  • no one organization is responsible for teaching these skills to parents of 0 – 5 year olds.
    there is research-based proof of the value of storytimes and other children’s services.
  • it increases the value of libraries and librarians to the community.
  • it ensures creation of future library users.
  • it increases awareness of library materials and library use.

Visit Utah Kids Ready to Read! for more resources on early literacy.