The Park Forest Public Library is targeting local and Olympia Fields parents with a new program encouraging reading during a child’s first few months.
“We want to introduce parents of newborns to the world of books and reading,” said Chrys Rudnik, youth librarian.
Library Administrator Barbara Flynn, who worked with Rudnik to obtain the $17,000 reimbursement grant for the program, said the objective “is to get them (parents) to read to their babies as soon as possible.”
More Top Picks Best Alarm Clocks For The Hearing Impaired
The Babies And Books Yes program, scheduled to begin in mid-October, will provide a startup reading kit to parents who bring in a special flier. The kit is a tote bag including a rattle, durable picture book, a finger puppet and an audiocassette, Rudnik said. It also provides recommended reading lists for parents.
The cassette tape teaches rhyming songs and finger play, Rudnik said, making it helpful for parents who are busy or uncomfortable with reading.
Flynn said early reading is essential because babies can understand words earlier than was previously believed.
“Expectant mothers can actually start to read to their babies before they are born,” Flynn said.
The program also covers books and materials “to help adults feel more comfortable about reading to their infants,” Flynn said. “It is a nice introduction to the parent for reading.
“My really big concern is there are people out there who don’t have a reading background. Many parents have not been raised in a reading environment. There are people who don’t have the first idea which way to turn when they come into a library.”
Rudnik and Flynn say they hope to reach those parents through referrals from pediatricians and health-care workers likely to come in contact with newborns.
The program is part of a decadelong national drive, but the first such program in the Suburban Library System, according to Rudnik and Flynn. When the yearlong program has concluded, Flynn and Rudnik will be available to help other libraries in the SLS, which serves most south suburbs, as well as Elmhurst and Norridge.