Frequently Asked Questions

How does Nemours BrightStart! help health professionals?

Nemours BrightStart! created the Health Care Professional's Toolkit to assist
pediatricians, family practice physicians and other members of the health care team.

The Toolkit will help you:

• Recognize the warning signs of dyslexia and reading failure in young children
• Educate parents about early literacy milestones and activities to promote reading readiness
• Build awareness of resources available to parents
• Provide timely referrals of at-risk children for diagnostic and therapeutic instruction
• Enhance the family-physician relationship by increasing dialogue about the holistic health of children

What is Nemours BrightStart!?

Nemours BrightStart!, the first program of its kind in the nation, researches, develops, and offers evidence-based tools targeting young children at risk for reading failure. In addition to direct services for young children, Nemours BrightStart! helps parents, educators, health care professionals, and community leaders understand key concepts and actions needed to promote reading success for all children through a variety of specific tools, services, and resources.

Why does Nemours, a children's health system, care about reading failure?

Reading failure often disrupts child development in academic, cognitive, social, behavioral, and emotional domains; therefore, it's a major child health issue.

Children with medical problems may struggle with reading either due to specific learning problems caused by the medical condition, frequent school absence, or both. Parents also often reach out to their pediatricians for help when their child struggles in school.

For all these reasons, Nemours has employed its legacy of scientific and clinical expertise to pioneer early identification and proactive intervention to put children on the road to reading success.

Does Nemours BrightStart! work?

Each year, our research has shown that the Nemours BrightStart! programs improve the early literacy skills of pre-kindergarteners at risk for reading failure. Based on our long-term follow-up, we also have evidence that most of those at-risk children are making good progress with reading into kindergarten through third grade.

How else can Nemours BrightStart! help me?

Nemours BrightStart! also offers:

• Continuing Medical Education
• Online references and resources
• Recommended reading on reading failure and dyslexia