Osceola County School District Embraces Nemours' Early Literacy Program to Improve Reading Readiness Skills in Pre-Kindergarten Children
Pre-kindergarten teachers to begin new educational program next week
The School District of Osceola County recently partnered with Nemours BrightStart! to implement their new early literacy program for children in the district pre-kindergarten classes this fall. The Nemours BrightStart! program was created to help identify preschool children at risk for future reading problems and provide educational activities that transform the way they approach reading, before they have a chance to fail. The program began in Jacksonville, FL in 2005 and has since screened thousands of pre-kindergarten children for early literacy skills. The results have been remarkable, as two-thirds of at-risk children who receive Nemours BrightStart! intervention move into the normal range after scoring well below average during initial pre-intervention screenings.
It is estimated that nearly 40 percent of American children enter kindergarten behind their peers in reading readiness. Students who struggle in the classroom early on may suffer educational, social, emotional and economic consequences. Unfortunately, most reading disorders such as dyslexia, which occurs in 15 to 20 percent of the population, are not identified until third grade or later. To combat these issues, Nemours BrightStart! was created to develop innovative and impactful programs that put children on the road to reading success.
“The Nemours BrightStart! program will be invaluable to Osceola County by giving our preschool students the tools they need to succeed in their academic careers,” says Michael A. Grego, EdD, superintendent of the School District of Osceola County. “These children are just starting, and we know that early detection and intervention can help prevent a lifetime of struggle and unnecessary hardship.”
During August, district pre-kindergarten resource teachers and pre-kindergarten teachers from eight different classrooms within the School District of Osceola County received their new early literacy kits and specialized training from Nemours BrightStart! instructors on how to implement the program. Four classrooms in private childcare centers are also participating through funding from the Early Learning Coalition of Osceola County.
These teachers finished screening the children for literacy skills in early September. In sessions that lasted only a few minutes, trained screeners met one-on-one with each child and gave simple tasks to measure pre-literacy skills important for reading, such as letter recognition, letter sounds, rhyming, and breaking words into syllables. The screenings are not intended to diagnose or “label” a child; rather, they simply determine if a child is behind in reading readiness and could benefit from Nemours’ unique educational instruction program.
Beginning next week, district resource teachers will implement the Nemours BrightStart! educational instruction sessions for those children identified to be at risk for reading difficulties. Children will meet in small groups for extra instruction in the building blocks of reading: print awareness, oral language, alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and emergent writing. Each lesson is filled with fun, developmentally appropriate activities that are proven to boost reading readiness in struggling learners. Upon completion of these unique learning activities, children will be re-screened to measure their progress.
The Osceola School District, the Early Learning Coalition of Osceola County and Nemours hope to grow the partnership over time by implementing the program in all pre-kindergarten classes across the county with the help of additional funding through grants.