Libraries don’t have the concentrated time with children that parents and primary care givers do to affect the repetition and ritual necessary for optimum brain development for language and early literacy skills. This program goes beyond modeling and information. Growing Like a Read provides tools and information to parents so they can be their children’s first and most effective teacher of early literacy skills. It also provides materials to child care providers so they can sustain the parent’s role in early literacy development.

GLAR provides a tote bag for books, a stand-up book of nursery rhymes and songs in English and Spanish, a CD of more rhymes, and activity logs for each 6 months developmental level from 0-48 months to every family in PLS’s 3 counties with young children on request. Over-sized poster sets of the stand-up book are provided to libraries, day cares and Head Starts. Librarians model the rhymes for parents and care givers in story time. They provide trainings and demonstrations to day cares. Pre and post surveys were done for one year to determine program effectiveness. Incentive giveaways were provided for the first 4 years for completing different program components. Area banks provided savings bonds for drawings as an additional incentive. Ongoing support is provided through e-newsletters and bibliographies, etc. provided through the website. The rhymes were selected with input from PLS children’s staff system-wide and the activities were vetted by child development specialists from the University of Oklahoma and the Cleveland County Health Department.

GLAR surveys indicate that parents’ knowledge of pre-reading skills is increased and the frequency that they read to their children or engage in other language-enhancing activities is increased by this program. These outcomes meet program goals. Survey was conducted among library users, so knowledge and behavioral changes were slight. Lesson learned is that outreach beyond the library is necessary to reach parents who could really benefit from the program, but cannot come to the library due to barriers including poverty, lack of transportation, institutional fear, etc. Parents are motivated to receive the GLAR materials; they are not motivated by the incentives.