toledoblade.com --

Some toddlers never get to say, "Read me a story." The adults at home can't read.

By 4, those children might not know that bat and cat and rat rhyme or that each word in "Aunt Allie's alligator" starts with the same sound.

By kindergarten, children who live in what Jim Funk calls "low-literacy households" might have only one-eighth the vocabulary of classmates.

"If you understand one word out of eight compared with somebody else, you're going to fall behind," said Mr. Funk, director of Read For Literacy in Toledo.

That's why Read For Literacy will embark on a three-year demonstration project, "Creating Young Readers," its first effort to include children. Preschoolers will be paired with individual volunteers, who will read to them much as the adults in their lives would if they could.

"We're hoping that intensive exposure to reading will level the playing field for them, that they will essentially be able to compete on a fair basis," Mr. Funk said.

Read For Literacy plans to announce the project's start at a news conference this morning.

Reading will begin in November at preschool sites of the Toledo Day Nursery; six YMCA-JCC preschool sites in Toledo and Oregon, and the East Toledo Family Center. Children will be selected based on how low they score on state reading-readiness tests, and on how far behind their teachers believe they are.

The project aims to attract 150 volunteers. Mr. Funk hopes each commits to 90 minutes twice a week, during which the volunteer will read to three children, 20 minutes each. That volunteer then could help the same six children weekly.

Businesses could offer teams of readers - say, three employees who would rotate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Mr. Funk said.

The child would see the same faces, and the business could take part in a community project, but no single worker would be away for long.

Training by children's librarians from the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library will begin in September. Volunteers will learn dialogic reading - a technique that mirrors how most adults read to children.

"You engage them in the book," Mr. Funk said.

That can be by asking what's on the cover; how many cows or dogs or trees are on a page, and then asking the child to tell the story back.

"If you come from a low-literacy household, that kind of thing isn't a natural thing," Mr. Funk said. "You wouldn't know to do that."

Preschool teachers read to classes every day, and that helps most children.

But for those from households where adults read at a fourth-grade level or below - at least 31,000 in Lucas County, according to a recent study - "that group reading will not do you as much good," Mr. Funk said.

The children will think the individual sessions are a lot of fun, said Pat Scheuer, executive director of the Toledo Day Nursery.

"When, in reality, a lot of learning will happen," Mrs. Scheuer said. "This sets the tone for lifetime learning and a love of reading."

Whether the project demonstrates success - and whether it ought to expand - will be measured by the preschoolers' performance on readiness test they take when they enter kindergarten.

Read For Literacy each year tutors 1,300 adults, and that will continue. Creating Young Readers is an attempt to address literacy early on.

"By the time [adults have] come to us, they've suffered the pains of illiteracy, and many of them have raised a family and perpetuated the problem," Mr. Funk said. "Clearly if we can find a way to prevent illiteracy and low literacy, that's better for everybody than to try to correct it 20 years later. It's a much more cost-effective and humane way to go about it."

Donors, including the Stranahan Foundation, the Toledo Community Foundation, The Anderson Foundation, the Toledo Rotary Foundation, and the Downtown Toledo Kiwanis Club together have contributed $54,500 to fund the first year, Mr. Funk said.

Anyone interested in volunteering may call 419-242-7323.

Contact Mark Zaborney at:
mzaborney@theblade.com
or 419-724-6182.

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