Family literacy event set for Peterborough Square

Families urged to engage children with reading activities

Family Literacy Day, a national day for reading advocacy promoted by ABC Life Literacy Canada since 1999 taking place Friday, will be marked with a public event Saturday at Peterborough Square.

Officials at Peterborough’s Five Counties Children’s Centre hope the day will encourage parents to take a proactive approach when it comes to getting kids interested in reading, explained communications coordinator Bill Eekhof.

The organization, based on Dutton Road in Peterborough, provides therapy and support services for hundreds of children with speech, language and communication needs.

“It’s a national day that is recognized across Canada, to promote the importance of reading and literacy for young children, especially when it comes to developing life skills,” Eekhof said.

Reading early greatly benefits speech skills, along with general academic success, he said

“One of the stats by ABC Life Literacy Canada shows that children whose parents are involved with them in family literacy activities, score 10 points higher on standardized reading tests,” Eekhof said.

Gaps in children’s vocabularies, literacy and language skills begin appearing at just 18 months, noted Ida Lloyd, a speech-language pathologist at Five Counties.

“Studies have shown there’s a 30,000-word gap between kids who are exposed to a lot of language, reading and words, and kids who aren’t,” Lloyd said. “So, it’s a huge impact from a young age.”

There are many engaging ways for families to encourage literacy skills, she said.

“By the time kids are three or four years old, their vocabulary and literacy levels will predict how they’ll do in third and fourth grade,” Lloyd said. “Then reading abilities at Grade 3, are already a really good predictor of how high school will go.

“Even if kids have trouble speaking or understanding, we still want to expose them to literacy, books and print as much as we can from a very early age.

Peterborough’s free annual Family Literacy Day event takes place Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon on the lower level of the Peterborough Square.”

“They have an event they’re calling a Readers Theater, with different local dignitaries, a reading by an Indigenous person, along with a singer and story teller,” Eekhof said.

“They’re also going to have free books, along with crafts and button making for kids. This has been done in Peterborough for many years.”