September is National Literacy Month

This September, be sure to pick up a book, visit a library, and explore places you could only see in literature’s grandeur. September is National Literacy month, which promotes awareness and interest in improving the overall literacy of a community. This can have a pleasing ripple effect through every individual life, their children, and their families. Multiple efforts to impede illiteracy have been made since the first National Literacy Month, but even after all these endeavors, illiteracy is still a problem all over the world. Based on previous studies, 750 million adults can’t read, and the devastating truth is illiteracy is found everywhere, in every nation, regardless of the culture.

National Literacy Month promotes reading to young children to enhance their cognitive skills and encourages the undertaking of the development of their cognitive abilities. Cognitive development is establishing an individual’s ability to understand the thoughts that run into their mind. Reading and improving the literacy of young children fundamentally provide them with the framework for how our world looks like. This way, they could develop an understanding of what they see, hear, and read.

To observe National Literacy Month as a family, you can gather everyone and choose a book to enjoy. If you have an affinity for social media, you can post a group photo with the hashtag #NationalLiteracyMonth to encourage your friends and family members to participate in National Literacy Month. If you’ll be reading with young children to jumpstart their literacy journey, it’s best to choose a material that is appropriate for their age range. Making the experience delightful and entertaining supports early writing and reading skills, enhances vocabulary, and strengthens the bond that you have. Experts encourage reading aloud for thirty minutes every day for children. You can get them involved by doing little things, such as turning the pages or discussing the story with them afterward, and you can ask them about the most impactful character or their takeaways.

Here are a few other ideas for celebrating National Literacy Month.

1. Donate books. Your local shelters are always in need of fresh materials to keep their residents entertained, and what’s the most effective way to entertain and keep the spirit of literacy alive than to read books? Coordinate with the shelter beforehand regarding what kind of books they’re looking for their residents to read. If you don’t have many books to donate, you can ask your co-workers, friends, and family to contribute or help you gather books.

2. Volunteer at a local library to read aloud to children. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is encouraging pediatricians to “advise parents of young children that reading aloud and talking about pictures and words in age-appropriate books can strengthen language skills, literacy development, and parent-child relationships.”

3. Gift a book. This National Literacy Month, tell someone you are thinking of them by giving them a book. When giving a book as a present, you are not only giving them a bunch of paper with a covering and words inside. Instead, you are gifting them an experience that only reading can give. It stirs up the imagination and satisfies their desire for new learning.

Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services