Emmi Jäkkö, Director of the Finnish Reading Center
Bookgifting makes families read. Many countries and organizations have had bookgifting program for decades. Others are just starting. Finland is one of them. What do we know from the programs that have been running for generations? What can we learn from the newcomers? The goal of the global network for early years bookgifting is to strengthen existing programmes and help organisations install new ones.
Bookgifting seems to be crucial on making families read and new brain studies show that the first year is especially important for speech and language development. Every baby born in Finland has received a book bag from family health clinics since 2019. Equal and accessible program has already had a strong impact on Finnish Families’ reading habits. Main results and key learnings from the Finnish program.