Soroptimist International of Mid-Atlantic Online
General Federation of Women’s Clubs
Kiwanis International
Thank you for your interest in this very worthwhile project to improve childhood literacy in your communities and beyond. On this site, are ideas and resources for your club. Below you’ll find three ways of helping the children. You will be working mostly with schools that serve a high percentage of children living at the poverty level or below. They desperately need your help.
Generally speaking, children brought up in homes at the poverty level or below enter school with weak vocabularies because they have heard fewer words, they have not been read to regularly, and they have not engaged in quality conversations with their family members. When children enter kindergarten with weak vocabularies, they can learn the meanings of only 1 or 2 new words per school day, while their classmates with strong vocabularies can learn the meanings of 3 - 5 new words per day. This creates an ever widening gap in reading achievement levels between those children with strong vocabularies and those with weak vocabularies. (See the chart below.)
To understand something one reads or hears, s/he must understand at least 95% of the words. We have each experienced this in our lives. The only way to help children with weak vocabularies is to focus on teaching the FOUNDATIONAL words children should have learned at home through incidental conversation and regular book-sharing sessions. These are words in children’s books. They are the FOUNDATIONAL words included in The Illustrated Dictionary of Everyday Things.
Helping disadvantaged children is the reason I wrote this book!
Janet Caruthers, Ed. S.
Here’s How You Can Help the Children
Chart showing the Correlation Between children Living in Poverty and Reading Level.
“Indeed, one of the most enduring findings in reading research is the extent to which children’ vocabulary knowledge relates to their reading comprehension.” (Osborn & Hiebert, 2004)
The Language Experience Gap: “Word Poverty”
Not all children are fortunate to be born into homes where parents or caregivers provide rich language experiences. These disadvantaged children enter our kindergartens lacking oral language skills. (Moats, 2001)
Children who enter school with limited vocabulary knowledge grow more discrepant over time from their peers who have rich vocabulary knowledge. (Baker, Simmons, & Kame’enui, 1997)
Gap in word knowledge persists through the elementary years. (White, Graves, & Slater, 1990)
The vocabulary gap between struggling readers and proficient readers grows each year. (Stanovich, 1986)
This page last updated 5/9/25