September is National Literacy Month!

Pick up a book, visit a library, and explore places you could only see in literature’s grandeur. Every September, we celebrate literacy and all the perquisites it gives us. Promoting awareness and interest in improving the overall literacy of a community can have a pleasing ripple effect through every individual life, their children, and their families.

National Literacy Month was founded in 1966 by The United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization or UNESCO. At the same time they had a proclamation to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights. National Literacy Month encourages everyone to take ownership of the dilating illiteracy issues that our communities are combating.

Multiple efforts to impede illiteracy have been made since the first National Literacy Month, but even after all these endeavors, illiteracy is still a problem all over the world. Based on previous studies, 750 million adults can’t read, and the devastating truth is illiteracy is found everywhere, in every nation, regardless of the culture.

Living in modern society, it is unimaginable for most of us to traverse our day-to-day lives without the ability to read and write.

 

The Importance of Literacy to Young Children

As an adult that can speak English eloquently, you can read to children to imbue them with structural and pivotal skills that may help them achieve their dreams and aspirations in the future. Influencing them with positive values through reading proves very effective in instilling stronger self-discipline, better concentration, and up-to-par memory retention.

National Literacy Month promotes reading to young children to enhance their cognitive skills and encourages the undertaking of the development of their cognitive abilities. Cognitive development is establishing an individual’s ability to understand the thoughts that run into their mind. Reading and improving the literacy of young children fundamentally provide them with the framework for how our world looks like. This way, they could develop an understanding of what they see, hear, and read.

How to Observe the National Literacy Month as a Family

You can gather everyone and choose a book to enjoy as a family. If you have an affinity for social media, you can post a group photo with the hashtag #NationalLiteracyMonth to encourage your friends and other family members to participate in National Literacy Month.

If you’ll be reading with young children to jumpstart their literacy journey, it’s better if you choose a material that is appropriate for their age range. Making the experience delightful and entertaining supports early writing and reading skills, enhances their vocabulary, and strengthens the bond that you have with them. Experts encourage reading aloud for thirty minutes every day for children! You can get them involved by doing little things, such as turning the pages or discussing the story with them afterward. You can ask them about the most impactful character or their takeaways.

Other Ways to Celebrate the National Literacy Month

  • Donate books to local shelters.

Shelters are always in need of fresh materials to keep their residents entertained, and what’s the most effective way to entertain and keep the spirit of literacy alive than to read books? Coordinate with the shelter beforehand regarding what kind of books they’re looking for their residents to read. If you don’t have many books to donate, you can ask your co-workers, friends, and family to contribute or help you gather books. Don’t forget to tell them that it’s for the celebration of National Literacy Month!

  • Volunteer at a local library or school to read aloud to young children.

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is encouraging pediatricians to “advise parents of young children that reading aloud and talking about pictures and words in age-appropriate books can strengthen language skills, literacy development, and parent-child relationships.”

  • Gift a book.

This National Literacy Month, tell someone you are thinking of them by giving them a book. When giving a book as a present, you are not only giving them a bunch of paper with a covering and words inside. Instead, you are gifting them an experience that only reading can give. It stirs up the imagination and satisfies their desire for new learning.

Literacy benefits everyone. It stimulates brain growth as reading is the workout of the brain. Knowing how to read and write is vital in bagging the career of your choice to climb the social-economic steps together with the knowledge of working with numbers.

During National Literacy Month, inspire everyone around you, young and old, to take the time to just sit down, relax, and crack open a good book in order to enhance their literacy.