Promoting reading 1
than parental level of education. In a similar wa
y, it has been possible to point out that engagement in reading, in the form of regular recreational reading, is more important for the reading abilities of children and young people than their parents’ professional status. All in all, there are strong arguments for free reading as effective social leverage. Reading researchers sometimes refer to the “Matthew Effect” of reading. A “Matthew effect” means, essentially, that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer – the effect is named after the verse in the Bible’s Gospel according to Matthew, where it says that “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them”. The Matthew Effect has been used to explain the gradually widening gap during school years between the strong and the weak reader. Children who are better readers than their contemporaries read more and thus get even better at reading. Children who do not read well read less, with the result that they lag even further behind. Teachers have warned that the Matthew Effect is likely to give rise to negative thought patterns in the teaching context, where weak readers are seen as hopeless cases. On a more positive note, the Matthew effect is indicative of the importance of early interventions to strengthen the child’s positive relationship to literature and reading. In the third chapter of this book, attention is drawn to reading promotion activities that target younger children. There is consensus in the research regarding the importance of early language stimulation. Parental engagement is particularly important for children’s reading development. Family literacy programmes is a collective name for initiatives that utilise this knowledge, and in a variety of ways aim to encourage families to stimulate the language development of their children, or inform parents about the importance of early engagement in language development. International research reports that have compiled a significant number of quantitative measurements of this type of programme indicate a large effect in terms of both improving children’s literacy and the capacity of parents to provide their children with support. Frequently used methods within programmes that target families with children are book gifting and reading aloud, in combination with information about the importance of early language stimulation. Internationally, there are a number of variants of Family literacy programmes. An example from the UK is Book Start, which began in the beginning of the 1990s and can now be found on all continents. Book Start has been evaluated several times, and, as a consequence of the programme, the following has been observed: increased reading (more frequently and in greater amounts) with infants and small children by parents/guardians; an increase in the number of library memberships for children; more parents/guardians placing a value on reading for infants and young children; increased self-confidence in reading aloud to children; and increased awareness of the role of reading in speech and language development. An internationally proven method of family literacy programme is conducting home visits to families. The benefits of home visits as a reading promotion method include being able to meet the family as a group on their own terms, at times that suit their schedules. Furthermore, home visitors can gather information about the child’s home learning environment and the cultural and/or socio-economic factors that may impact on the child’s reading development. One of the key factors that determine the quality of the implementation of home visits in family literacy programmes is the training of 101