If only I could— I would ask that every child who comes into the world be granted their personal fairy godmother who will make sure children have loving parents and caregivers read to them. Simply stated, it should be every child’s inalienable right, but all too often the reality is something different. The nurturing and love that is transmitted when parents read to their children is not something you can put a price tag on and those who have that experience know what I am speaking about.
A recent finding from Read To Grow, an organization dedicated to building literacy from birth, shows that reading difficult is linked to later trouble with the law. The following statistics tell a chilling story.
57% of incarcerated youth ages 16-24 had only rudimentary reading skills
56% of the adult prison populating had only rudimentary reading skills
“The literature shows a clear correlation between a grade-level reading problem and, later on, incarceration in the juvenile justice system,” said Ralph Smith, managing director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a national collaboration of foundations, nonprofits, business leaders, and communities focusing on school success for children in low-income families.
http://readtogrow.org/ to learn more
