Books Build Connections Literacy Toolkit

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton just left the podium at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition in San Diego, where she unveiled the Academy’s updated early literacy toolkit for pediatricians and parents,Books Build Connections. We wanted to share this announcement with you as soon as it was made so that you can take advantage of this new resource.

Books Build Connections: what’s in the toolkit

The Books Build Connections toolkit, available online at aap.org/literacy, provides updated resources for pediatricians and guidance for families on the importance of talking, reading out loud, and singing to children every day starting in infancy.

The toolkit contains tip sheets, parent handouts and other publications in easy-to-use, mobile-friendly formats, including:

• Concrete ways pediatric health professionals can promote early literacy in their practice and community;
• Background for pediatric professionals on the science of early literacy;
• Parent-friendly tips on sharing books with children at specific ages and stages of development, from birth through age 10;
• Advice for parents on “the secret to a smarter baby”;
• Recommendations on choosing books for children based on age and topic, including examples of specific titles;
• Tips from doctors on reading with very young children, including the 5 Rs of early education.

Promoting early learning: pediatricians’ role

Research, including the AAP’s recent policy statement on early literacy, shows that talking, reading and singing with young children starting at birth builds strong and healthy parent-child relationships, fosters early language skills and promotes children’s brain development. Yet, fewer than half of children younger than five years old are read to daily in the United States. In addition, children from higher-income families hear up to 30 million more words than children from lower-income families, resulting in a word gap, or disparity between words children hear and learn from birth to age four.

As a family’s most trusted source on early childhood development, pediatricians have an important role to play to help close the word gap. The AAP recently announced a collaborative partnership with Too Small to Fail, a joint initiative of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation and Next Generation, to do just that. Together, we’re working to promote healthy parent-child bonding and ea rly learning by ensuring that pediatricians, parents and caregivers have the information, tools and books they need to promote early learning. The updated toolkit is a direct result of this collaboration.

From policy to practice: what you can do