Impact of Professional Development on Accessible Early Literacy Content for Preschool Children with Disabilities in Public Library Storytime

Library storytime programs provide opportunities for preschool children to develop readiness skills in early literacy that are linked in research to later success in learning to read and write. Children with disabilities that do not demonstrate school readiness skills upon entry to kindergarten are often placed in self-contained special education settings where opportunities to learn to read and write are diminished. English Language Learners (ELL) who have disabilities face additional challenges in benefiting from the models of language that are optimal for learning literacy when placed in self-contained settings. Despite the critical role that storytime programs play in equalizing the opportunities for children to learn early literacy skills, librarians report having few children with disabilities in their programs, and those that do attend experience difficulty participating due to sensory, behavioral, motor and communication challenges. Librarians in public libraries report minimal training in how to support children with disabilities and their families in meaningful participation in preschool storytime sessions. This study explored the impact of professional development, utilizing the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to increase the accessibility of early literacy content associated with foundational skills in reading and writing during preschool storytime. This mixed methods study incorporated elements of both descriptive and quasi-experimental design, and is one of the first conducted in a public library to measure pre and post data on how librarians plan and implement storytime before and after professional development. Parents\u27 experiences attending preschool storytime were also collected and analyzed in order to inform future policies and practices in the public library