Bonding Through Books
Bonding Through Books: NICU/ICN Family Literacy Program
Project Overview – Although early literacy programs aimed at infants (0-2) have enjoyed considerable success around the world, little attention has been paid to the particular needs of NICU/ICN infants in the context of early childhood literacy. Moreover, most literacy programs emphasize text-based reading rather than more expansive and multicultural forms of visual storytelling. With Bonding through Books, ABaD seeks to combine visual art, language, and physical space to create a culturally sensitive, holistic framework of support for babies, their families and caregivers/medical providers in NICUs/ICNs.
Project Design & Outputs – Bonding Through Books seeks to support three key developmental categories:
Parent-child bonding and connection; health and nutrition; and brain and cognitive development.
We are designing interactive “care packets” that provide multiple points of entry to engage with literacy,
learning, and emotional connection. These packets include:
● A set of illustrated cards that will serve as visual prompts to engage in reading, storytelling, and
connection, encouraging parents to develop early reading practices with their infants. The visual
cards will encourage play and creativity, motivating parents and caregivers to communicate through
images as well as in their native languages. The imagery will be culturally relevant to multilingual
families, helping them to feel a sense of ownership in the process of engaging their children through
these cards.
● Specially designed journals for parents that will provide a space to record even the smallest
moments of connection, and/or serve as a place to record medical progress and questions.
In addition to these care packets, ABaD proposes to:
● Establish small libraries within the NICU/ICN where parents can borrow books to read to their
babies, including tactile books with high-contrast images.
● Provide a multilingual, inclusive selection of new books for families to take home to start and grow
their at-home libraries.
● Create a sensory-friendly environment to support developmental care practices (including
reading). These spaces will be designed to facilitate communication and connection, including
positioning aids to comfortably support infants during reading sessions, as well as colorful posters
and decoration.
● Offer workshops for parents with strategies for engaging with their babies through storytelling and
images. ABaD will strive to ensure that families are actively involved in reading activities and that
their cultural and linguistic preferences are respected and incorporated, and our team will seek
feedback in order to best respond to families’ needs.
Why ABaD?– Our focus on multicultural communities and our collaborations with healthcare providers have laid the foundation for Bonding through Books. Since 2020, ABaD has been partnering with three pediatric nonprofits, supporting multilingual, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ patients (Puentes de Salud, Philadelphia FIGHT, UPenn Mobile Dental Clinic). We collaborate with a mobile dental program that provides oral care to underserved communities to distribute books and provide specially designed recipe cards, dental hygiene tips, and how-to guides to foster awareness about oral health and nutrition.
