Laying the Foundation for Lifelong Learning

- by Jon Devin

If you can read this article, then chances are that your parents read to you as a child, says Wilson McCloy of Memphis Literacy Council’s (MLC) Family Literacy Program. McCloy wants Memphis parents to understand that early childhood learning is essential to success in school, and that it all begins at home.

“All (parents) really need is to read regularly to their kids four to six times a week,” he continues. “That’s what I consider a whopping success.”

It sounds like a no-brainer, but McCloy has found that many Memphis parents, especially in the lowest income brackets, are surprised to learn that it is important to read to babies, toddlers, and preschool-age children.

“This is new information for them-it’s a big revelation,” he says.

Studies by the American Library Association link parents reading with their children to higher test scores during the elementary school years, when the fundamentals of reading and writing are first taught. Also, children whose parents read to them are more likely to graduate from high school and college.

In his role as program manager of the Family Literacy Program, McCloy takes that message to the people who need to hear it most. This six year-old program partners with agencies like Title I public schools, Head Start centers, private and church daycare centers, and other programs which provide services for children up to age 10. Even sites where the majority of clients speak Spanish are included. McCloy visits each site three times a year to train the parents of those children on creating successful young learners at home.

The training is crucial, he explains, because other area literacy resources often overlook it. Dolly Parton’s statewide Imagination Library for instance, works to bring free books to young children, but does not spend time teaching parents how to use them.

McCloy collaborates with the Imagination Library, Mid-South Reads, and other organizations to make sure that all those free books do more than collect dust. He teaches research-based methodology to parents in intimate groups of 10 to 20.

One of the first concepts that he emphasizes to parents is that the architecture of a child’s brain is developed from repeated skills. Free literacy kits, provided by McCloy during training workshops, offer items like books, magnetic letters, construction paper and markers that can be made into literacy games. Games encourage children to explore letters and words on a daily basis.

But what happens when the parents cannot read very well themselves?

McCloy says this is a fairly common hurdle for low-income families, but it can be overcome. In his training, he teaches the Dialogic Reading Method, part of the Every Child Ready to Read curriculum, developed also by the American Library Association.

Dialogic reading involves parents opening a book and asking lots of questions. If the words are too difficult to read, parents can point at pictures and ask the child to interpret them. Parents can also ask children to make sentences using the more familiar words from the story. Activities as simple as these, when repeated often through the week, have been proven to increase learning behaviors and childhood reading skills, McCloy says.

Another skill parents learn in training is familiarity with the 6 pre-reading skills, which include print awareness - helping a child understand the existence and purpose of printed letters - and phonological awareness - how children first begin recognizing and interpreting sounds.

“If parents are not told how important this is, they’re likely to just turn on the TV and let it go at that,” says McCloy.

McCloy says he’s always been passionate about books, reading, and learning. He joined MLC when returning home to Memphis after attending a university in Montana. He has one daughter of his own, in whom he hopes to instill his love of lifelong learning. He is also a volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Memphis.

“I love books,” he says. “I know the power of reading, and I know it has the power to change lives. It increases the quality of lives.”

What’s more, he gets to see lives changing every time a parent has his or her first moment of feeling real empowerment. Parents leave training knowing what they need to do so that someday their children will be able to read articles like this one without any concern that it might be too difficult.

For more information about the Family Literacy program please visit www.memphisliteracycouncil.org.