Story Times
Promoting reading in the clinic
About Our Program
Across the mid-peninsula, there is a growing educational achievement gap along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. Much of this disparity is rooted in differences in early education - Children from the poorest families hear 30 million fewer words by the time they are 4 years old compared to their higher income peers.
As part of the Pediatric Advocacy Program at Stanford, the Mayview (Mountain View) and Ravenswood (East Palo Alto) clinics have established “little libraries” in the waiting rooms where children and their families can engage with and take books for free
What is Story Times?
Undergraduate Volunteers
Clinic Libraries
Story Time Readings
Our program recruits volunteers from the undergraduate community at Stanford. Using the "Little Libraries" collection at our two clinic sites, volunteers host Story Time readings to patients while they wait for their visit and promote the importance of early literacy. This year, our volunteers have completed 18-20 shifts during the winter quarter!
Specific responsibilities include:
(1) Reading culturally- and age-appropriate books to children.
(2) Modeling book-sharing techniques for parents.
(3) Distributing educational materials that detail best practices and the importance of literacy at home
Testimonials
One child was whispering with two otherchildren: "Are you sure we can take the books?". I overheard and said "Yes, please do!" The child's eyes lit up and he spent a long time in a hyper-focused discussion with his siblings about what books to take. He loved the dragon slayer series and when I feel good about myself. His siblings fawned over The Fault in Our Stars and wanted to share the book together since there was only one cop
A little boy gave his mom her phone back and came running back to me, and we read 2 books together!
-Storytimes Volunteers