Created with Dr. Donna Y. Ford of Vanderbilt’s Department of Special Education, the booklet details places in Nashville to find free books, free literacy tutoring, and online literacy resources. Each resource is accompanied by contact information and a map.
Having access to books is vital for a child’s future educational attainment. Reading itself helps children develop language skills, background knowledge, syntactic prowess, and other academic skills (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1979), as well as supports vocabulary learning at a level that oral language does not (Stanovich, 1998). Effects of early reading are reciprocal and exponential: those who are able to read and develop the skills love are more able and willing to read further and continue developing them (Stanch, 1993).
Children growing up in homes with more books complete more years of schooling (Evans, Kelley, Sikora & Treiman, 2010), but not all children have access to books. This resource seeks to provide opportunities for all children in Davidson County to have early reading experiences.