Does the preschool reading badge promote inequalities between children

Early childhood reading is very important for child’s later development. It helps to achieve better results in the field of thinking, it stimulates imagination, critical thinking, empathy and expands vocabulary. It is important that educators and parents are aware of this. One of the main activities for promoting early and family reading in Slovenian preschools is the more and more popular Preschool reading badge. Experts have been pointing out the problem of the Preschool reading badge for many years now, as its primary goal – to encourage family reading, is increasingly overshadowed by the competitiveness of parents or children. Furthermore, there is also the problem of families whose mother tongue is not Slovene, as Preschool reading badge forces them to read in a foreign language. In the theoretical part, I described family reading and its impact on child’s development. I described the main features of the reading badge and the Preschool reading badge, and searched for some alternative methods that preschools or other institutions use to encourage family reading. I also presented the experts’ opinions on the Preschool reading badge. In the empirical part, I obtained the preschool teachers opinions on the Preschool reading badge with the help of a survey questionnaire. I was interested in their view of the Preschool reading badge – how they implement it and whether they find it appropriate for preschool children. I was also interested in the opinions of preschool teachers who use alternative methods for promoting family reading: – which methods they use, why they find them better than the Preschool reading badge and what shortcomings they see in it. I paid special attention to non-Slovenian families; especially what adjustments preschool teachers use for them when implementing Preschool reading badge. The analysis of the data revealed interesting findings. Most preschool teachers are still unaware of the problems connected with implementing reading badge in the preschool period. I found out that even alternative methods of promoting family reading are essentially quite similar to the reading badge, mostly having a few minor changes and a different name. Most preschool teachers are not aware of the problems of the Preschool reading badge in connection with non-Slovenian families; some of them do not see it as a problem at all