The Eastern Arizona Courier – Staff Writer 
As elementary schools statewide celebrated the birthday of famed children’s author Dr. Seuss on March 2 by hosting reading events, First Things First and Read On Arizona remind families that literacy starts way before a child reaches kindergarten. “Early language abilities are directly related to later reading abilities. Studies have linked the number of words children know at ages 3 and 4 to their reading comprehension levels at ages 9 and 10,” FTF Chief Executive Officer Sam Leyvas said. “And gaps in children’s vocabulary can start to develop between 9 and 18 months of age; those gaps only widen as babies get older. So if we want to make our children good readers, we need to start when learning begins: at birth.” State Literacy Director Terri Clark emphasized that while many link literacy to reading books, it really starts with language.(more)