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Opening Remarks: February 26, 2002

Joan Ohl, Commissioner, Administration on Children, Youth and Families

Good morning. It is a pleasure for me to be with you this morning and to welcome you to this forum on behalf of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families. As you look around you, in this audience are leaders in the field of early child care and the field of literacy. Today, in this forum, you will be examining the intersection of those two fields.

Children in Child Care
According to the January 10th edition of Education Week, "11.9 million children younger than 5 in the United States—or about 6 in 10—spend part of their waking hours in the care of people other than their parents." These adults are relatives, caregivers operating out of their homes, workers in child care centers, Head Start staff members, and teachers in State-financed pre-kindergartens. The quality of the early care and education that young children receive in such settings sets the tenor of their days and lays the building blocks for future academic success.

This is not a completely new concept. It was Plato who said "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life." Getting children ready to read is not only important—it is critical! There is a remarkably strong and stable link between what preschool children know about words, sounds, letters and print, and later academic performance. Children lacking such knowledge upon entry into kindergarten will not only struggle there, but will also have difficulty learning to read through high school, if intensive and informed intervention is not provided. Accordingly, strong pre-reading and vocabulary skills are good predictors of a child's later success in school.

School Readiness
Yet children, whether from wealthy or poor families, are experiencing significant difficulties with respect to school readiness. In fact, in 1998, 25 percent of our nation's children from families without any risk factors—such as poverty, parents who have limited education, single-parent homes, or lack of experience with the English language—entered kindergarten bereft of the necessary oral language and early literacy skills critical for learning. Still, children from poor families are much more likely to enter school with limited vocabularies and meager early literacy skills.

Participation of the child care world in the Administration's early literacy agenda is absolutely critical. The President and the First Lady are highlighting early literacy as a major priority. One of the goals of the First Lady's Ready to Read, Ready to Learn initiative is to ensure that all children are prepared for reading and learning when they start school.

Children who are not ready to learn arrive in kindergarten at a disadvantage. It is troubling to watch these little ones struggle with print, and even more troubling to see how embarrassed and frustrated they are by their failure to do what they see other children do. Their confidence and self-esteem are chipped away, and they may decide that they are not comfortable in school—it is not a place they want to be.

The Foundations of Literacy
Many of these children have difficulties learning to read because they have not developed the basic building blocks of language during their preschool years—the building blocks that are forged through language play, lap time reading, bedtime stories and conversations about the characters and the situations that the stories brought to life.

Why is this basic foundation missing? In some cases, the children's parents themselves have not learned to read and cannot read to their children. In some cases, limited income means no books in the home. For many children, being left behind does not begin in elementary school—it begins in the years between diapers and backpacks.

The infant brain actually seeks out and acquires a tremendous amount of information about language in the first year of life. Even before babies can speak, they have already figured out many of the components of language. They know which particular sounds their language uses, which sounds can be combined to create words, and the tempo and rhythm of words and phrases.

Why is this information important? Because developmental science has taught us that there is a strong connection between early language development and reading. Both oral language and reading require the same types of sound analysis. The better babies are at distinguishing the building blocks of speech at 6 months, the better they will be at other more complex language skills at 2 and 3 years of age, and the easier it will be for them at 4 and 5 years to grasp the idea of how sounds link to letters.

Preschoolers' cognitive abilities, including language and pre-reading abilities, can predict school success and school completion. For example, reading scores in the ninth grade can be predicted with surprising accuracy from a child's knowledge of the alphabet in kindergarten.

Building Pre-Literacy Skills
Children need help learning these concepts; they do not develop naturally. A child will not learn the name of the letter "A," the sound the letter "A" makes, or how to print it simply by being with adults who know these things or by being with adults who read a great deal for pleasure. Children learn these critical concepts because adults take the time and effort to teach them in an exciting, engaging, and interactive manner.

This does not mean that preschool children should be taught using the same methods and materials that are used with first- and second-graders. The challenge for the parent, the grandparent, the preschool teacher, or the child care provider is to develop fun, educational language activities that also engage and develop children's interests, social competencies, and emotional health. All of these goals can be joined and met, but there must be a clear and equal emphasis on building pre-literacy skills.

Effective strategies that promote early language and cognitive development are available for use at home and in child care settings that can ensure that many children at risk of failure now can enter their first classroom ready to read and ready to learn.

The Key to Success
Every expert who participated in the White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development stressed that reading is the keystone for academic and life success. A failure to learn to read not only leads to failure in school, but portends failure throughout life.

Not only are children humiliated emotionally and socially in school because of this failure, but they are unable to learn about the wonders of science, mathematics, literature, and other subjects because they cannot read grade-level texts. By high school, the student who cannot read has almost no dream of attending college and can only look forward to meager occupational choices.

Without school readiness, the damage to a child's future not only reflects an educational problem, but a public health problem as well. As HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson puts it, "Reading contributes to good health. Without reading skills, you can't figure out a prescription, or a warning sign, or keep up with news reports relevant to your health. Less information means greater risk. Put another way, literacy means a healthier life."

Literacy Efforts at National, State, and Local Levels
It will take action at every level, from the Federal government to the classroom, to ensure that child care systems are well-developed and teachers are well-prepared to foster language and early literacy skills for young children. Many States and private organizations are already taking creative steps to incorporate early literacy into their programs.

According to the latest round of Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) State plans, the following States have Child Care and Development Fund literacy initiatives:

In Massachusetts, child care is a part of the Massachusetts Literacy Consortium, which works to create collaborations for family literacy programs. Massachusetts is also reimbursing programs that incorporate literacy principles at a higher rate.

In Missouri, child care providers are trained using HeadsUp! Reading, with technical assistance and support from the Missouri Child Care Resource and Referral Network.

In Connecticut, the child care lead agency works with the Connecticut Department of Education and the Commission on National Service to support adult and child literacy programs at child care centers.

In California, the Public Broadcasting Service's Preschool Education Project is providing training for approximately 2,500 family child care providers and parents within the viewing areas of seven public television stations. Each public television station has established a network of trainers in order to offer continued support and to conduct refresher training.

In Wyoming, in partnership with the Wyoming State Library, the Department of Family Services will fund training for every child care provider on the Mother Goose Asks "Why" literacy program. Individuals will be trained to deliver this curriculum in every county of the State.

Local child care resource and referral, otherwise known as R&R, agencies also have literacy initiatives. A number of State R&R networks, including California, Florida, Utah and Oregon, have literacy specialists housed in R&R agencies to train and consult with providers. Many of these specialists also work with parents.

Within the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, collaboration and partnerships between the Head Start and Child Care Bureaus offer exciting possibilities for quality and educational improvements. Around the country, collaborations between Head Start and child care provide full-day, full-year care that offers comprehensive social and educational services. Many more children can be served with this type of care. The Child Care Bureau will leverage Head Start's efforts with respect to literacy.

At the Department of Education, the Early Reading First initiative is seeking to create early childhood centers of excellence by improving the instruction and classroom environment. The ultimate goal of Early Reading First is the prevention of later reading difficulties by helping children acquire the necessary language, cognitive, and early reading skills required for continued school success. Funding through this initiative will be available to child care agencies. The Department of Education will be putting out a funding announcement for these grants this spring.

A number of funders across the country support early literacy efforts, including many national and local foundations, United Way agencies, local councils on early childhood development, and State government agencies for Human Services and Education. Several of these State initiatives are funded from CCDF quality funds. States can and do spend a portion of their CCDF quality improvement funds on literacy initiatives.

Reauthorization and Child Well-Being
We're excited about the opportunities that reauthorization brings to improve the Child Care and Development Fund. In the coming weeks, we will be looking at ways to make the program easier for States to manage, as well as more responsive to the needs of working parents and their children. To build on the input gained in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) listening sessions, we will be looking for opportunities over the next month and a half to schedule listening sessions with Child Care Administrators, providers, parents and others.

The overall goal of TANF reauthorization is child well-being. Child care supports this goal and is an important work support. We will continue to urge States to use the flexibility in the block grant and to look for innovative ways to improve the quality of child care, including the incorporation of early childhood literacy.

Child Care Bureau Efforts
Through research and technical assistance, the Child Care Bureau provides States with information and tools to support States' choices for investments in child care quality improvement. Through a variety of publications, conferences, and consultation, the Child Care Bureau will support States' efforts to enhance early literacy practices in child care. We are committed to following up this forum by intensifying our efforts on literacy in child care.

In addition, the Child Care Bureau has outreach networks that will help deliver information about literacy practice in child care. Through the National Child Care Information Center, our national clearinghouse for child care, we will work to inform child care policy-makers and practitioners at all levels about the importance of improved literacy practices in child care. The Child Care Bureau also sponsors Child Care Aware, a national hotline and Web site at the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. The hotline reaches millions of parents each year with information on choosing child care that supports children's development, and is a potentially powerful partner in spreading the word about literacy practices in child care.

A National Movement
I encourage each one of you to see yourself as an important part of a national movement to focus on literacy, in public and private organizations at all levels. This morning, listen to what the research has to say and think about the innovative models that will be presented. Use them to spawn new ideas for child care quality improvement. This afternoon, we are counting on you to provide your best ideas and advice on how all of us can improve the child care system's ability to prepare children to read for success in school and in life.

Language development begins long before a child speaks his first words, and learning how to read begins long before a child reaches school age. It begins while they are listening to nursery rhymes, stories, and songs. Parents and caregivers, whether in center-based care, family child care, or kith and kin care, are helping our preschool children's developing brains understand how language is organized. In all of these settings, it is imperative that caregivers have the knowledge and skills they need to promote language and literacy. What could be more important or more worthwhile?

From day one, the education we provide our children will shape the way they think and learn. The quality of their education will either drive or stifle the enthusiasm, motivation, and effort they bring to learning, the way they interact with others, and their ability to adapt to their successes and failures throughout life. We all have the duty to take the evidence of scientific research seriously and translate it into practices that can be implemented by the full range of child care providers, because the time between birth and age 5 is the foundation upon which successful lives are built.

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