Out of the Box and Into the Book: Innovative Library Partnerships to Close the 30 Million Word Gap

Authors

  • Michelle Baldini
  • Marianne Martens

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.14n1.12

Abstract

Recent research has shown that early literacy is directly connected to school readiness. Talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing, the basic tenets of Every Child Ready to Read 2 (ECRR2), not only increase young children’s vocabulary, they also help them process new information. However, the disparity in vocabularies of children of lower and higher income families is one of the greatest battles of the twenty-first century.

Author Biographies

Michelle Baldini

Michelle Baldini, MLS, received a starred review for her first young adult novel, Unraveling (Delacorte 2008). She earned an MLS, specializing in young adult literature, and has since worked extensively in the field of children’s literature. At the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University in Ohio, Michelle works as Coordinator of the Reinberger Children’s Library Center alongside the top leaders in librarianship and children’s literature.

Marianne Martens

Marianne Martens, PhD, is Assistant Professor at Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science, and co-directs the Reinberger Children’s Library Center. Her research and teaching covers the interconnected fields of youth services librarianship and publishing, with a special focus in the area of Digital Youth. Prior to her academic career, Martens worked in children’s publishing in New York. You can read more about her at mariannemartens.org.

References

Betty Hart and Todd R. Risely, “The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3,” American Educator 27, no. 1 (2003).

Anne Fernald, Virginia A. Marchman, and Adriana Weisleder, “SES Differences in Language Processing Skill and Vocabulary Are Evident at 18 Months,” Developmental Science 16, no. 2 (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/desc.12019.

Patricia Kuhl, “Linking Infant Speech Perception to Language Acquisition: Phonetic Learning Predicts Language Growth,” in Infant Pathways to Language: Methods, Models, and Research Directions, eds. John Colombo, Peggy McCardle, and Lisa Freund (New York: Erlbaum, 2008).

Scholastic, Inc. Kids and Family Reading Report, 5th ed., accessed Oct. 21, 2015, www.scholastic.com/readingreport/index.htm.

Rosemary Wells, Read to Your Bunny (New York: Scholastic, 1998), 28.

Tricia Twarogowski, “Programming for Children with Special Needs,” ALSC (blog), accessed June 23, 2009, June 30, 2009, July 8, 2009, July 15, 2009, July 22, 2009, www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2009/06/programming-for-children-with-special-needs.

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Published

2016-03-22

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2016): Spring

Section

Features

License

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