Story time comes to life for Heywood babies

Parents and babies attended the first Bookstart Baby session in Heywood Library

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A group of parents and babies enjoyed exciting adventures and wonderful rhymes at the first Bookstart Baby Club in Heywood Library last week.

The fun, free and interactive sessions have been set up for parents, carers and babies from birth to 15 months old and include storytelling, poems and singing. The aim is to make stories come to life, develop babies’ love and enjoyment of books and rhymes as well as helping to boost their literacy and communication skills.

Councillor Neil Emmott, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Neighbourhoods, said “Babies are never too young to enjoy sharing books and love the rhythm and rhyme in songs. Evidence shows that introducing babies to books at a young age is not only a fun activity but also helps their literacy, academic performance and chances in life. Come along to a Bookstart session to really help open up your child’s imagination and creativity.”

The Bookstart programme, aimed at children from birth to five, recognises that children in their early years who have access to books before reception age begin school with significant advantages and achieve higher attainment in all aspects of education.

Irene Peachey, Rochdale Borough Libraries’ Early Years Library Worker, said: “Having trained as a nursery nurse. I’m aware of the importance of early literacy development and how children learn. I use lots of visual aids to ‘bring stories to life’ in my Bookstart Bear Club sessions, making them fun and interactive for young children and their families.

“The club develops self-esteem, confidence and a sense of achievement and belonging within children which is a wonderful way of preparing children for school. It is never too early to start sharing books and songs with children, in fact the earlier the better.”

Included in the free to join programme are:

• Free books to share with your child
• Support and guidance to inspire a love of books
• Opportunities to engage with other families at vibrant and fun community events.

In 2000, Professor Barrie Wade and Dr Maggie Moore researched a group of Bookstart children just as they were starting primary school and compared them with a carefully selected group of non-Bookstart children. Upon starting school, the Bookstart children were significantly ahead of their classmates in all Reading and Number assessments. At age seven the Bookstart children were still ahead in learning.