United Way Provides Books for Music Together Families

Overall, research shows that access to books correlates with a child's success in school, work, and life.

That's why United Way of Coastal Fairfield County recently donated over 200 books to nine Music Together programs in Bridgeport.

The goal is to give families the tools to promote development of early language and pre-reading skills, so that children enter school ready to learn.

Experts note that early literacy begins well before children enter school. It begins from infancy when children hear and play with sounds, develop vocabulary, gain awareness of books and print, and understand stories. And books have an added benefit: they are a gateway to positive shared experiences between caregivers and children that promote healthy emotional development.

United Way and Music Together are allied in promoting early childhood development. Music Together is a music and movement program for children from birth to seven years and the grownups who love them. The program uses music to relieve stress, increase bonding, and encourage development of cognitive, physical and emotional skills.

To supply the books, United Way partnered with Read To Grow, a Connecticut non-profit that promotes language building and literacy for children beginning at birth.

(not pictured: donations to Skane School and Child and Family Guidance Center)

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