Deer Park Public Library

Our Parent/Child workshop is a wonderful opportunity for parents to network with each other and form bonds of friendship. I have witnessed parents connecting on many topics of concern regarding their children including language development, eating and sleeping habits and weaning. The weekly resource professionals are an integral part of educating parents in the community, as well as, giving new parents a sense of confidence in the raising of their children.

As part of the educational component, the first week of the workshop I am the resource person in the role of librarian. I discuss the science behind the importance of reading to children. I convey the value it has in the development of the brain, emotional health, expressive language and school readiness. I also make the parents aware of our Parenting and Growing Up collections. Sharing with them examples of books written on topics of interest covered at both an adult level, as well as a picture book format, encourages circulation of these items. Parent/Child Workshop also provides a valuable learning environment for socialization which children may not otherwise have at the pre-school age. Children who are not yet ready to play with other children and engage in solitary play, still benefit and learn from being immersed in the experience of observing how others interact with toys and fellow children. They gain information about how their peers solve problems of sharing, taking turns and toy exploration, in addition to participating in imaginary play, an art opportunity and a circle time which promotes early literacy. In addition to using my regular rhymes, fingerplays and puppets during circle time, I have been incorporating a simple participation story to create a more interactive experience with books for the children. For tactile learners, I have been choosing a craft that is related to the theme of the book to encourage visual and cognitive connections with vocabulary in the story. This vocabulary will be reinforced when chatting with whomever they share their craft with at home.

Patrons are eager to communicate with resource professionals in this casual, non-judgmental environment and glean valuable information to help their children grow and develop with as much support as possible. We recently welcomed a speech pathologist from a local early intervention program into our workshop. I listened as one mom who was concerned about her son's speech delay spoke to another mom who used this local program to assist her son in the previous year. She reassured the worried mother stating her son's improvement: how he overcame his frustration in expressing himself, and how much his verbal ability and his vocabulary had grown. This type of interaction and community support is a wonderful outcome of our Parent/Child Workshop.

There is no doubt that we are enhancing language development, early literacy and a love for the library. This program has had a positive impact on our community proven by parents who repeatedly sign up from one season to the next and continue to sign up as new children are born into their growing families.