About Nemours BrightStart!

Reading may seem easy and automatic for people who master it without difficulty. However, reading is actually a complex and challenging task, so we shouldn’t be surprised that so many children struggle with it. In fact, about 15 to 20 percent of the American population has a specific reading disability called dyslexia, making it the leading cause of reading failure in school. Because dyslexia and reading failure have a tremendous impact on a child’s development – and because they affect millions of America’s children – it is a major child health issue.

The good news is that we now know what dyslexia is, how to identify it from an early age, and most important, how to teach people with dyslexia so they can become successful readers. Nemours BrightStart! was established in 2005 to address this common and treatable problem from a very early age.

Programs and Services

At Nemours BrightStart!, our goal is to put children on the road to reading success from the earliest possible age. We focus much of our work on pre-kindergarteners, when preventive action can help the most. We have developed a unique child screening and educational instruction program that takes proven, effective research and translates it to the preschool classroom, transforming the way children approach reading. 

We also have numerous programs for parents, teachers, health care providers, and older struggling readers, and work to inform entire communities about dyslexia, reading failure, and the keys to reading success. Nemours BrightStart! measures its impact through scientific research and program evaluation. We use that data to understand how our programs are working, and to add to the field of knowledge about preparing young, at-risk children for future reading success.

In the Community

Nemours BrightStart! programs take place in the community: in child-care centers, schools, and other locations where children and families gather. Every part of our program is designed to raise awareness about the warning signs of dyslexia and offer guidance to help prevent at-risk young learners from falling behind their peers.

Pre-Kindergarten Screening and Educational Intervention

Nemours BrightStart! developed processes for screening early literacy skills in pre-kindergarteners to identify those who may be at risk for dyslexia and other reading challenges. We have also developed a unique and powerful educational curriculum designed to teach at-risk pre-kindergarteners identified through our screening process.

Since 2005, we have:

Screened over 9,000 pre-kindergarteners in Jacksonville, Florida 

Provided the Nemours BrightStart! educational curriculum to more than 1,500 at-risk children in their child-care centers or preschools

Moved two-thirds of those at-risk children to the average range in their early literacy skills, following the Nemours BrightStart! specialized instruction

Averaged a 128% gain in reading readiness test scores for at-risk children, from before to after our unique educational program, compared with an average 25% gain on the same test for children not receiving that program

Prepared the Nemours BrightStart! curriculum for broader distribution to help others implement this successful program  

Mobile Classroom Units

Our three mobile classroom units extend the visibility of Nemours BrightStart! in the community and help us reach even more families. We provide screenings, intervention, and general information-sharing at community events throughout the year. 

Professional Development for Educators

At Nemours BrightStart!, we know that we can enhance the impact of our programs by training others on our successful screening and instructional techniques, and educating them about identifying and teaching children at risk for dyslexia. Please look at our Basic and Advanced Workshop Series for more information. For those who purchase our unique pre-kindergarten curriculum,  intensive professional development training is available on use of the lessons and materials in the classroom.

Parent Education

Nemours BrightStart! is proud to offer parent education workshops on a variety of child health and development topics. Take a look at the Parent Workshop Schedule for more information. Click here to find helpful tips for preparing your preschooler for reading success, and understanding and helping your older struggling reader.

Health Care Providers

Nemours BrightStart! offers various tools and educational options for physicians and nurses related to reading development, dyslexia, and the role health professionals can play in talking with parents about these important topics. We developed a Physician’s Toolkit with materials on preschool language and literacy milestones, risk factors and warning signs for possible dyslexia, and tips for counseling parents on these concerns. Nemours also offers Continuing Medical Education (CME) opportunities on dyslexia to medical professionals.

Research and Evaluation

At Nemours BrightStart!, we are always exploring ways to study the effectiveness of our programs and learn more about the prevention of dyslexia and reading failure. We have studied our pre-kindergarten instructional program outcomes each year for four years, and results have been consistently strong. Each year, our research has shown that the Nemours BrightStart! curriculum significantly improves the early literacy skills of at-risk pre-kindergarteners. Based on our long-term follow-up, we also have evidence that most of those at-risk children are making good progress with reading in kindergarten and first grade.

We value feedback from the child-care centers and preschools where we do our work, and from the parents whose children we teach. For this reason, we distribute surveys and analyze results several times each year. Learn more about our research and evaluation projects published papers, and presentations.