Thanks to generous funding from PNC’s Grow Up Great program, the Library, Discovery Place, and Community School of the Arts have delivered multidisciplinary vocabulary-building programs for toddlers and preschool-aged children at two community centers, online and in Library locations for three years.

Over the course of our collaboration, we’ve developed lasting relationships with families in two underserved communities, and shared strategies to support pre-literacy skills through everyday activities, and the importance of doing so. Many participants are now regular Library users.

As Get Ready With Words draws to a close, we are excited to build upon what we’ve learned as we re-introduce “Learning Together,” a Library-led program designed to empower even more families through literacy.

Parent Observations

Over 4 months last spring, 30 families read 1291 books together, and reported important behavioral changes:

• He is more interested in books
• Her words are more clear
• My son likes to show books and pictures to his dad
• He is speaking better and can say numbers
• She can say long sentences
• He asks lots of questions
• She wants to do everything without help and is talking a lot!