Launching the home reading initiative earlier this month, its national co-ordinator Lindsey Fraser explained how she had worked on creating the booklet Reading Together by speaking to a number of teachers and nursery nurses to get feedback. She said, 'Their reaction was, "Not another initiative that we have got to do".
'We don't want to add to what they have to do, but support what they are already doing. The aim of the campaign is to get parents sharing books with children from as young as possible. It's not about teaching how to read, it is about giving confidence in how books work, how to turn a page, so that when they are at school they know there is a point to them.'
Ms Fraser said books could also form a basis for dialogue and help language development. 'There is an issue about language development, with children coming to school without sufficient language skills, which could be a result of not enough conversation in the home,' she said.
Parents often lacked confidence about reading with young children, she said, particularly if they had not been strong readers themselves at school.
The Reading Together booklet is designed in a question-and- answer format and takes parents and carers through some of the difficulties they may face. It will be given to children throughout Scotland in their final year at nursery school.
The Reading Together website at www.readtogether.co.ukwill also be updated regularly according to ongoing feedback.
The home reading initiative is backed by a number of celebrity Reading Champions, including author JK Rowling and 'Fame Academy' winner David Sneddon.
Lindsey Fraser, national co-ordinator for the home reading initiative, made her comments about the role childcare professionals can play in early literacy following the Government's launch earlier this month of its home reading initiative, which is aimed at parents and carers of young children.
It includes a booklet, Reading Together, which will be given to children throughout Scotland in their final year at nursery school.
To create the booklet, Ms Fraser spoke to a number of teachers and nursery nurses to get feedback. She said, 'Their reaction was, "Not another initiative that we have got to do", so we don't want to add to what they have to do, but support what they already doing.
'The aim of the campaign is to get parents sharing books with children from as young as possible. Not about teach how to read, it is about giving confidence in how books work, how to turn a page, so that when they are at school they know there is a point to them.'
Ms Fraser argued that as well as making children more confident when approaching reading once they were in school, books could also form the basis of a dialogue and help language development. 'There is an issue about language development children coming to school without sufficient language skills which could be a result of not enough conversation in the home,' she said.
Ms Fraser added that parents often lacked confidence when approaching reading with young children, particularly if they had not been strong readers themselves at school. The booklet is designed in a question and answer format and takes parents and carer through some the difficulties they may face such as if the child wants to look at the same page over and over.
The initiative is backed by a string of celebrity Reading Champions, including author JK Rowling and Fame Academy winner David Sneddon.
Resources also include the Reading Together website, which will be updated according to ongoing feedback.
