PLA Announces Partnership with NICHD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 2000
FROM: KATHLEEN HUGHES
PLA COMM. MGR.
312-280-4028
The Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association, will partner with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to facilitate effective early childhood reading instruction. PLA has agreed to help disseminate information contained in the recent National Reading Panel (NRP) Report, and from the NICHD research findings on how children learn to read. Additionally, the two groups will work together to help build public library services for preschool children based upon the findings in NICHD studies and the recommendations of the NRP Report.
In 1997, the Congress of the United State called upon the Director of the NICHD to create a National Reading Panel to identify research-based practical findings on how children learn to read. The panel was not charged to conduct its own research. Rather, the charge to the panel was to sift through the many research studies, and determine, based on the highest quality scientific research evidence, what are the most effective methods for teaching reading. The final report, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction, was issued in April 2000.
NICHD officials, being very eager to disseminate the information contained in this report, have partnered with PLA because they recognize that parents, teachers, and day care providers rely on their local public library for resources to help their children learn to read. Public libraries will provide the public infrastructure to broadcast this information across the country. Public librarians are urged to get copies of this report and video into their collections and into the hands of their customers. This report and accompanying video can be ordered, free of charge, at www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrppubskey.cfm.
This PLA and NICHD partnership will also include the design and funding of model projects that incorporate the findings of recent research in the field of emergent literacy. These model projects will create some best practices, for public libraries, to help children start school ready to read.
“Public libraries are strong partners in education in our communities. The NRP report gives us new information about the skills that children need to learn in order to read well. We are eager to build this new information into our programs for preschool children. We also want to share this information with parents and caregivers who look to the library for resources for their children. Bringing together the research of NICHD and the users of public libraries, together we can help inform and educate many children in our communities,” said PLA President, Harriet Henderson.
NICHD has conducted research, since 1965, on three fundamental questions: How do children learn to read? Why do some children and adults have difficulties learning to read? How can we help most children learn to read? Since 1985, the NICHD has initiated studies designed to develop early identification methods that can recognize those children during kindergarten and first-grade who are most at-risk for reading failure. Some of the major converging findings include the following:
Research over the past 35 years has NOT supported the view that reading development reflects a natural process—that children learn to read as they speak. Unlike speaking, reading is not an instinctive natural process. Reading must be taught. Learning to read begins far before children enter formal schooling. Children who have stimulating literacy experiences from birth onward have an edge in vocabulary development, understanding the goals of reading and developing an awareness of print and literacy concepts. Children most at-risk for reading failure are those who enter school with limited exposure to literacy-related activities and who have little prior understanding of concepts related to phonemic (sound) sensitivity, letter knowledge, print awareness, the purposes of reading, and oral language and verbal skills.
PLA and NICHD are committed to extending this research into the development of best practices for public library services. Information about progress on this initiative will be available later this year.