Buchstart – Né pour Lire – Nati per Leggere.
Switzerland.
December 26th 2023
Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media
Georgengasse 6, 8006 Zürich
Research, documentation in the field of children’s and youth media and reading promotion
Barbara Jakob
Project manager
www.sikjm.ch, www.buchstart.ch
National reading promotion organization
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Buchstart – Né pour Lire – Nati per Leggere.
Switzerland.
2009
The aim is to support all children born in Switzerland in their language development and to give them access to the world of knowledge. Buchstart Switzerland sensitises parents to how they can playfully promote their child’s perceptive faculties and positively influence its language development. In order to achieve this goal in Switzerland, all families with a newborn shold receive a bookstart package.
Federal Office of Culture, cantons, div. sponsors.
Nationwide.
Not for profit.
None.
a) Consistent, regarding the aim and the strong focus on libraries as well as the content of the packages. b) Not consistent, regarding the distribution of the packages: German speaking part: mainly in the libraries, after parents have received a voucher via paediatrician/mother counsellor, in some places paediatrician/mother counsellor distribute the package directly. Italian speaking part: sent by the community together with a letter including information concerning the local library. French speaking part: in the libraries or via healthcare workers
2 board books (exchanged every 2 years, one rather intended for babies the other for toddlers) and a multilingual informational brochure for parents (16 languages) Packed in a cardboard box.
Yes.
Library, Paediatricians, Mother counsellors, communities, intercultural mediators.
Healthcare workers, librarians, paediatricians, Mother counsellors, early education specialists. Important is the local/regional construction and care of a strong network to reach as many families as possible.
None.
Basically, it is universal, but we try to reach more disadvantaged families as well as families with migrational background. Therefore, we motivate local networks to include as many partners (common or private) as possible. For example, with the aim to include Bookstart information in specialized programmes for these target groups,
About 30,000 receive the package (=35% newborn/year).
Birth – 6 months, 6 – 12 months, 12 – 24 months,
No.
The books are available in 3 languages (German, French, Italian), the brochure for parents is multilingual (18 languages: German, French, Italian, English, Turkish, Tigrinya, Tamil, Arab, Farsi, Spanish, Serbian, Russian, Portuguese, Kurdish, Croatian, Albanian, Ukrainian, Rhaeto-Romanic).
In the first years after the launch in 2008 there have been 2 master theses mainly concerning the impact of the project on libraries (as there was absolutely nothing for families with very young children before!) Both also included feedback from parents and how they esteem the offer, especially the regular Bookstart sessions in the library. In 2024, a new evaluation will be published.
