TY - JOUR
T1 - Early Literacy in Everyday Settings
T2 - Creating an Opportunity to Learn for Low-income Young Children
AU - Neuman, Susan B.
AU - Knapczyk, Jillian
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was conducted under the guidance and approval of the Institutional Review Board at the authors’ university. It was funded by the Valhalla Foundation in collaboration with the Clinton Foundation’s initiative known as Too Small to Fail. There is no conflict of interest. We have received permission to reproduce the pictures in this article. In 2015, Too Small to Fail, the early childhood initiative of the Clinton Foundation forged an innovative partnership with the LaundryCares Foundation (LCF), a non-profit organization established by the Coin Laundry Association, a trade organization that serves laundry owners to promote early learning activities in low-income communities through laundromats nationwide. Recognizing that little ones were often left to their own devices, Jane Park of Too Small to Fail designed a small playful corner in several laundromats in New York City to engage children in literacy-related play. Each corner was equipped with comfortable seating for children, books and play objects. With a small team at NYU, we conducted a pilot test examining how the playful activities in these corners might support early literacy compared to laundromats without these corners. Our initial evidence suggested that children engaged in 30 times more literacy-related activities than those without (Neuman et al., 2020). At the same time, although we observed behaviors extensively, we did not measure increments of time and therefore, could not estimate how children’s time was allocated while in the play area, and whether it might promote the type of enrichment activities associated with literacy learning. Furthermore, with parents busily engaged in doing laundry, we saw only limited interactions with adults who could possibly stretch children’s learning. Therefore, while the initial findings were mostly encouraging, given the small sample (3 treatment; 3 control laundromats), and short-term nature of the pilot (12-weeks), more research was needed to further explore their potential to contribute to children’s early literacy development. Partnering with Too Small to Fail, the Valhalla Foundation in collaboration with LaundryCares gave us this opportunity. Working with the Foundation, the trade organization had an extensive network of laundry owners in Chicago who were interested in providing free laundry days and educational resources to neighborhoods in need. In addition, the Chicago Public Library System with its considerable outreach program, willingly signed on, hoping to create a stronger connection with neighborhoods through providing services to local businesses. Although the Library System had been involved in a laundry and literacy outreach program since 1989 (Ford, 2019), to date activities had been geographically limited and as a result, they were eager to establish a broader outreach. Together, these three organizations in collaboration recruited 20 laundromats in low-income neighborhoods, 10 of which were designated after baseline as treatment (based on their size, and willingness of their manager), and 10 in contiguous areas, as control. Representing 10 different neighborhoods within Chicago, they largely served Latino/a and African-American communities (see Table 1). As shown in the Table, all of these neighborhoods had large concentrations of families living in poverty with limited educational resources in the immediate areas. : Pseudonyms used to protect confidentiality. : Data derived from Child Health Atlas (https://chicagohealthatlas.org/). Zip codes are given in bold.
Funding Information:
This project was conducted under the guidance and approval of the Institutional Review Board at the authors’ university. It was funded by the Valhalla Foundation in collaboration with the Clinton Foundation’s initiative known as Too Small to Fail. There is no conflict of interest. We have received permission to reproduce the pictures in this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 International Literacy Association.
PY - 2022/10/1
Y1 - 2022/10/1
N2 - Persistent concerns about income and social inequality have raised questions about how to address opportunity gaps in access to literacy learning for low-income young children. Recognizing the need to strengthen learning opportunities, this study examines how specially designed hybrid spaces within the ‘everyday’ place of a neighborhood laundromat might support children’s literacy development. Twenty laundromats in high-poverty neighborhoods from a large urban city participated in the research: 10 in which small spaces were reconfigured to create literacy-related play settings; 10, in which remained “business as usual” control sites. Conducted over two phases, the 7-month study examined changes in children’s literacy activities resulting from the physical design changes alone, and subsequent changes when combined with a trusted messenger, a public librarian, who assisted in their activities. Results indicated that these hybrid spaces dramatically increased children’s time on literacy-related activities, especially when given adult assistance, averaging 47-minutes per child of sustained activity. These results suggest that intentionally-designed everyday spaces may play an important role in increasing young children’s access to resources and opportunity to learn.
AB - Persistent concerns about income and social inequality have raised questions about how to address opportunity gaps in access to literacy learning for low-income young children. Recognizing the need to strengthen learning opportunities, this study examines how specially designed hybrid spaces within the ‘everyday’ place of a neighborhood laundromat might support children’s literacy development. Twenty laundromats in high-poverty neighborhoods from a large urban city participated in the research: 10 in which small spaces were reconfigured to create literacy-related play settings; 10, in which remained “business as usual” control sites. Conducted over two phases, the 7-month study examined changes in children’s literacy activities resulting from the physical design changes alone, and subsequent changes when combined with a trusted messenger, a public librarian, who assisted in their activities. Results indicated that these hybrid spaces dramatically increased children’s time on literacy-related activities, especially when given adult assistance, averaging 47-minutes per child of sustained activity. These results suggest that intentionally-designed everyday spaces may play an important role in increasing young children’s access to resources and opportunity to learn.
KW - motivation/engagement
KW - oral language
KW - theoretical perspectices
KW - vocabulary
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127588335&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85127588335&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/rrq.468
DO - 10.1002/rrq.468
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85127588335
SN - 0034-0553
VL - 57
SP - 1167
EP - 1186
JO - Reading Research Quarterly
JF - Reading Research Quarterly
IS - 4
ER -