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Lansing State Journal, 9/27/2002 New mothers urged to read to babies
By Hugh Leach Link to the article |
It's never too early to read to a child, new mothers at Sparrow Hospital and Ingham Regional Medical Center learned Thursday.
They received packets including toddler-friendly books and baby-sized "Read to Me" T-shirts.
 HUGH LEACH/Lansing State Journal |
| Baby bookworms: AARP staff members and volunteers stuff bags with materials explaining that children's IQs may be enhanced if they are read to from infancy on. Seated are Sue Tumosa (from left), Rebecca Mixon, Sueann Reyes and Anita Salustro. Standing behind them are Di Clark (from left), Uto Iha and Lois Bader. |
The packets were prepared by AARP staff and volunteers in cooperation with the Capital Area Literacy Coalition.
"What you do with your child from birth can improve the child's IQ by as much as 40 points," said Di Clark, the literacy coalition's assistant director.
Research has shown that newborns take in much more information than was ever thought possible, said Lois Bader, the coalition's executive director and a literacy professor at Michigan State University.
"Children start to take in information while still in the uterus, including learning to recognize their mother's voice," said Rhonda Stockard, director of women's services at Sparrow.
"We even encourage mothers to read to babies before they're born."
Bader said she has wanted to distribute materials to the hospitals for several years, but her small staff was unable to add that to its other duties.
When Anita Salustro from AARP, a nonprofit organization for people 50 and older, called looking for a project for AARP's Day of Service Thursday, Bader was ready.
"We thought we wanted to do something of an intergenerational nature," Salustro said.
For the annual day of service, other AARP members took on different projects such as mowing lawns for people who couldn't do their own or working in soup kitchens.
Rebecca Mixon, a volunteer with AARP, said that she had not considered working with the Literacy Coalition before being asked to participate in Thursday's project.
"It really added to my knowledge," she said.
The volunteers also dropped off children's books at the pediatric units of the two hospitals.
"We received a wonderful assortment of books," said Robin Underwood, patient care manager of obstetrics and pediatrics at Ingham Regional.
"You can never start too early to instill the love of reading in children."
Kids in the pediatric ward have their normal routines disrupted, Underwood said, and reading to them brings back some sense of normalcy.
Contact Hugh Leach at 377-1119 or hleach@lsj.com.
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