Children In Ag: Breaking The Cycle Of Low-Literacy Among Latino Families In Salinas Valley

Salinas, California – Read to Me Project (RTMP) is expanding its work to break the cycle of low literacy among farm-working Hispanic families in Salinas Valley by helping prepare their young children for kindergarten.

The brilliantly simple program is a solution to a root cause of alarmingly low-literacy rates among the children of Monterey County’s Hispanic workers. (70% of the community’s children are entering kindergarten lagging as much as two years behind in language and cognitive skills, and many never catch up in school—leading to acting out their frustration and struggles in later years.)

The Read to Me Project is a family-based program that provides structure and opportunity for infants, toddlers and preschoolers to be regularly read to by their elementary-aged siblings. The siblings-to-siblings program is reaching children during the early years when brain development and the foundation for learning are optimum.    

Researchers at the Universities of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles explain children of Latino immigrants tend to be born healthy and start life on an intellectual par with other American children, but by the age of 2 they begin to lag in linguistic and cognitive skills. The researchers found startling evidence: Mexican American toddlers between ages 2 and 3 displayed language and cognitive skills about eight months behind those of their white peers, whether assessed in English or Spanish. Left unchecked, the learning gap increases with every advancing year – leading to learning challenges and bigger problems later. The study suggests the early-learning shortfall may start even before the children enter preschool, supporting calls to Washington to spend more on programs that coach parents to stimulate their children with books, drills and games earlier in their lives.

Founder and Executive Director Barbara Greenway says, “We are asking ag businesses for funding support since our program impacts the young children of many of their workers in Monterey County. The need for our simple, cost-effective, prevention-based program continues to build. More than 5,000 births are reported annually by two Salinas Valley hospitals, and every year an estimated 7,000 children County-wide are entering kindergarten. The alarming fact is that 70% of children in Monterey County are entering school unprepared. Last year we implemented the program in 70 classrooms. We’re reliant on grants, donations and schools fees to be able to increase our capacity for meeting the demand. I’m pleased to say we just hired three part-time program coordinators who will help serve 84 classrooms and an estimated 2,500 students and siblings this school year. However, there is much work to be done in order to reach the thousands born every year.”

The Read to Me Project is an innovative read-aloud program that motivates and trains upper elementary age students to read to their infant, toddler and preschool age siblings. The Project provides participating classrooms with age appropriate books, which are checked out and taken home to read aloud daily to young brothers and sisters. It is currently reaching families and helping to change lives by preparing children for kindergarten readiness school and a life-time of success.

For more information contact Mary De Groat at Mary@readtomeproject.org or call 831.275.1300 x 702. www.readtomeproject.org.

Source: The Read to Me Project