Strengthening Vocabulary Ability among Toddlers in their Early Childhood Literacy through the Reading Seed Programme (RSP)

Abstract

The Reading Seed Programme (RSP) by PUSTAKA Negeri Sarawak has the potential to be the main nationwide literacy programme, especially to inculcate a reading culture. For instance, the RSP is designed to aid children in developing their reading vocabulary, and the RSP's target participants were pregnant mothers. The mothers would be utilising the RSP kits during pregnancy and after childbirth on their babies and toddlers. A substantial number of survey respondents were mothers and/or guardians of toddlers under three years old, and they shared their experiences with the RSP programme. Therefore, this paper aims to collect empirical data to assess the extent to which the RSP has achieved its objective of enhancing vocabulary ability among the toddlers during their participation in the reading programme. Convenience sampling was employed to collect the data among the RSP participants (the parents who enrolled in the RSP). This pilot study targeted RSP users in Kuching City, the hometown of PUSTAKA Negeri Sarawak. 385 respondents completed the online questionnaires, which yielded a 92.33% response rate. The findings of this research demonstrate that the RSP has proven to significantly contribute to the toddlers’ vocabulary ability in reading. However, the RSP needs to address individual learning capabilities, incorporate updates or monitoring systems, improve training, establish a strategic roadmap of the RSP outcomes, and clarify the programme's attitudinal components with respect to the targeted outcomes. The RSP should continuously empower programme implementation to develop a global brand of early childhood reading programmes.