Scholastic is proud to announce and share a newly published whitepaper, Reading for Life: The Impact of Youth Literacy on Health Outcomes from the Scholastic Research & Validation team. With assistance from the Yale Child Study Center–Scholastic Collaborative for Child & Family Resilience, the whitepaper illustrates the importance of creating a literacy-rich home environment for all children at an early pace and outlines the essential components for a student home library that is a tangible and cost-effective.
The Reading for Life whitepaper equips educators, families, students to build an empowering reading culture and environment for every child. With an emphasis on data and trends that show how children without access to reading materials at home are more likely to suffer learning losses when out of school, the whitepaper explores topics from literacy, social-emotional, learning, physical development, mental health, early childhood intervention, and more. Highlights include:
- The current state of children’s literacy and health, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The importance of early-childhood education and literacy interventions in preschool, and their roles in health outcomes.
- Reviews how current literature depicts the relationship between literacy rates and physical, mental, and social-emotional health.
- Successful collaborations between the education and medical fields that implement literacy interventions in pediatric healthcare settings.
“There is no denying the profound impact of childhood literacy, not only on individuals, but on families, communities, and societies,” authors Kai Shulman and Sarah Trabucchi write. “Research shows the power of reading is unequivocal: it increases educational engagement, enhances equity in communities that need it, inspires critical thinking and nuanced ideas, positively impacts future economic success, and imbues young people with empathy and intelligence—qualities that are more and more important each day.”
To read the full paper, click here.
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