Plant a Seed looking for newborn readers

Press release

Plant a Seed...READ! has had volunteers enrolling 2017 Hill County newborns in the Imagination Library program throughout the year, in an opportunity brought about by the Triangle Community Vitality Grant and an Early Childhood Investment Team grant.

Hill County residents who have not had their newborn enrolled can contact the Plant a Seed office by phone or email to enroll their baby now. Forms are also found online at http://www.plantaseedreadmt.org, or contact Lorraine Verploegen, Plant a Seed...READ!, at 265-6743, ext. 1111, or via email at [email protected].

This is free to families of children from birth to age 5.

The first building block of future reading is learning to understand and speak language. The brain is developing at a high rate from birth to age 3, so it is important for babies and toddlers to hear language by reading aloud age-appropriate books to them.

By 18 months, babies may understand an average of 50 words. After the age of two they acquire vocabulary at a rate of 8-10 words a day. By the age of 6, a child understands about 13,000 words when families have read aloud to them every day and carry on conversations during purposeful play.

Jim Trelease said, “If the child has never heard the word, the child will never say the word; and if you have neither heard it nor said it, it’s pretty tough to read it and to write it.”

Community members may donate to Plant a Seed…READ! by sponsoring a designated child or a child on the waiting list for $25 per year per child. Donation forms are found on the back page of the Friday Havre Daily News TV Guide or on the program website. Approximately 1,500 children in Hill County are eligible to be enrolled in the Imagination Library program.

When people become proactive by reading aloud from birth, other learning challenges are decreased.