Here’s how Mid-Continent Library helps kids grow reading skills, one story at a time

If you’re ready to help your kids learn reading skills but not sure how to do it, the Mid-Continent Public Library has a new app that might help. Launched in January, Grow A Reader’s focus is on early literacy and pre-reading skills.

It’s different from the library’s previous app, which was adapted from one produced by the Calgary Public Library . This time, the library worked with local web developer Code Koalas to create and customize the content.

“Growing the app has been a mission for a while. We finally had the funds and the people to put it together,” said Scott Rader, youth services librarian for the library’s early literacy services.

Those in Lee’s Summit will get recommendations of items available at Colbern Road or East Lee’s Summit.

A summer reading program centered on creating reading habits, rather than reaching a number of pages or books read, helped crystallize the app’s focus.

“There’s a lot of research around reading 20 minutes a day and the positive effects that can have; the same with talking with your kids every day. Singing builds a lot of vocabulary. We really want people to create these daily habits,” Rader said. “This gives (reasons to) why this helps with early literacy development, how it helps kids learn to read.”

Users can personalize recommendations by putting in their child’s age and local library branch. That helps the app steer parents toward books that are available nearby, as well as upcoming activities.

Because it’s focused on pre-reading skills, there’s more to it than just book recommendations. The library will regularly add videos of library staff reading or singing and keep an archive of previous videos.

“Often it is our staff singing songs or doing finger plays, something like ‘The Itsy-Bitsy Spider’, which is a combination of a song (and finger play),” Rader said.

However, it’s not meant to replace programs such as storytime, even though it has many similar elements.

Tip videos for parents will address topics such as these key early literacy skills: talking, singing, reading, writing and playing. Other weekly tips are also available on the library’s Facebook and YouTube pages each Tuesday.

The app also has numerous tips for age-appropriate activities parents can do with their children almost as soon as they’re born.

“A lot of these things people are already doing, too. People are talking and singing to their babies, so it’s also a reinforcement tool to show parents they are doing right things. It’s just giving them intentionality of those things,” Rader said.

Another feature of the app is Dial-A-Story, which has recordings of the library’s storytime staff reading books. There are five stories available at any one time, covering a variety of age groups. Every month they change, although the library may occasionally do a re-run.

Helping to show the app’s local roots is the library’s early literacy mascot, Marty the Martian. The app will launch a book written about Marty in May that will also be available at library branches. Over the next two years, there will be five more books, and app users will have earlier access to digital copies of the books.

The app currently has some books and songs in Spanish, French and American Sign Language, Rader said, but as a whole, it’s just available in English. He hopes that in the future, they’ll be able to add versions of the app fully in other languages.

Look for the free app in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 5:00 AM.