Publish date: 6 March 2025
Public health nurses working with families, health visitors and family nurses have long known how reading with young children builds self esteem, supports speech and vocabulary, feeds imagination and can even help with sleep patterns.
Our 0-5 children's teams already work with Book Start to distribute books to families, at key stages in a child's development and are part of launch today (World Book Day) which is a story telling pilot study funded through the Child Health Equity Collaborative and Dolly Parton’s Imagination library.
Children will receive a book a month for the next three years and parents/carers will be supported to understand how important books and storytelling are for their infant; how even starting to read to your baby in utero can support their brain development.
Cath Creed, from our Family Nurse Partnership, who work with young mums (under 19), told us that her team have received further training from Book Start to further their understanding of the vast array of benefits looking through a book together can bring for children.
"It is great that we can enrich our young parents and infants lives through this collaboration with partners from Barnodos, Book Start, public health commissioners and health visiting colleagues".
