The Clarke County Parents as Teachers (PAT) program is marking a year of measurable progress in early literacy, crediting a grant from the Ala Tom RC&D Council with getting more books and reading habits into homes across the rural county.
PAT provides families with high-quality children’s books, literacy kits and hands-on parent education aimed at encouraging daily reading routines for children up to age 5. During home visits, the program’s parent educators deliver books directly, model reading strategies for parents, and coach families on making reading a natural part of everyday life rather than a separate, scheduled activity.
“The importance of reading begins long before a child is ever born,” said Clarke County PAT coordinator Donna Nelson. “When parents read to their babies during pregnancy and continue reading throughout early childhood, they are building the foundation for academic success, social-emotional growth and lifelong learning.”
The grant expanded the program’s reach in several concrete ways: increasing access to books for families who couldn’t otherwise afford them, adding monthly literacy activities to help parents engage their children, coaching parents on reading’s importance from pregnancy through age 4, reaching rural families facing transportation and child care barriers, and tracking daily reading habits through reading logs and home-visit records. Parents in the program have reported reading more often, feeling more confident supporting their children’s development, and seeing their kids become more interested in books.
The push comes against a well-documented research backdrop: children who are read to regularly hear millions more words by age 4 than children who are not, a gap strongly linked to school readiness and later academic success — a difference that can be especially consequential in a rural county where families may face more barriers to outside enrichment resources.