Florida Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio recently hosted a briefing for Nemours, a national health system offering personalized care to children. The focus of the briefing was Early Literacy, Military Readiness, and Health. Panelists included Jamie Barnett (Ret.), Executive Advisory Council Member for Mission: Readiness, Dr. Laura Bailet, Executive Director, Nemours BrightStart!, and Dr. Robert Needlman, Department of Pediatrics, MetroHealth Center, founder of Reach Out and Read.
According to Rear Admiral Barnett, almost 70% of Americans qualified for military duty are currently ineligible due to health factors, of which include obesity and confounding issues related to weight. Mission: Readiness, a non-profit organization led by former and current military leaders, seeks to promote military mission readiness through academic and physical education. The organization supports early childhood education, and recognizes the impact of early intervention services as predictors of future success.
Both Dr. Bailet and Needlman reiterated the Rear Admirals concern with the current status of early childhood education, and his support of early intervention programs for all students including students with exceptionalities. Dr. Bailet’s program, Nemours Brightstart! individualizes reading instruction for children in pre-kindergarten who are “at-risk” for reading failure. The program is open to all students, including students with exceptionalities, as well as students from low socio-economic backgrounds, and diverse students. According to the Brightstart! data, at-risk students participating in the program demonstrated over 125% gain in reading readiness, compared to a control group of students not identified as at-risk who demonstrated a 25% reading readiness gain.
Dr. Needlman, the founder of Reach and Read, emphasized the importance of integrating stakeholders in early literacy and early intervention programs. Needlman’s Reach Out and Read program is taking place in pediatric clinics across the country, and utilizes both the pediatrician and the parent to promote early literacy skills. According to a 1995 study by Betty Hart and Todd Risely, children from welfare families heard on average 616 words per hour, whereas children from professional families heard on average 2153 words per hour. By educating parents on effective read aloud techniques, Reach Out and Read attempts to close the literacy gap from the moment children enter the pediatrician’s office. All three of the panelists took the opportunity to ask staffers at the briefing to consider formal funding for the above programs as well as other early childhood programs aimed at promoting early literacy, health education, and early intervention.
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