Early childhood education needs new books for daycare shelves

Books are an important tool for developing language skills, but daycare shelves need new material, writes Anna Varmo, a Helsinki mother and purchasing assistant, in a reader opinion piece for Helsingin Sanomat.

She says recent discussion about children’s language development should also focus on the tools available in early childhood education. In her view, every child’s language development, regardless of their home-language background, depends heavily on spoken and written language, making books a central resource.

Finland publishes a substantial number of high-quality children’s books each year. The books are entertaining, informative and richly illustrated, Varmo writes. She asks what public route and source of funding could bring a selection of new books published in the 2020s into daycare centers each year, for professionals to use and all children to browse.

By different kinds of books, she means storybooks, picture books, poetry and nursery-rhyme books, as well as nonfiction on different subjects. Varmo says the shortage of books in daycare centers is serious, nationwide and affects all children aged 0 to 6 in early childhood education. She argues that every daycare-aged child should have access to high-quality children’s literature and the language-enriching content it offers.