Mamaroneck Preschoolers Get A Lead on Reading

by Terry Toll of the Mamaroneck Schools Foundation

(December 1, 2003) While programs like National Children’s Book Week put the spotlight on literacy once a year, here in Mamaroneck, the Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) helps foster a love of learning in preschoolers and their parents over the course of an entire year.

Children in eleven families challenged by obstacles to success such as language barriers, low income and limited education are receiving a head start in learning their letters and numbers. A unique network for fostering parenting and family literacy skills, the PCHP comes to Mamaroneck through the professional resources of Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS), and funding from the Mamaroneck Schools Foundation (MSF).

Based on the twin beliefs that parents are their children’s first, and most important teacher, and that conversation promotes learning by developing curiosity, imagination and independence in children, the Parent-Child Home Program brings experts into homes to model comfortable ways for families to embrace reading, and in the process, become more successful learners.

Preschoolers in the program see their own specially trained “Home Visitors” at home twice a week, every week throughout the school year. These friendly visitors help make reading an irresistible activity for young learners, with a carefully assembled collection of books, toys, games and exercises. Children are drawn to these “unofficial” teachers because they feel respected, understood and excited by them. As one parent observed, “My daughter loves the home visitor. She doesn’t want her to leave.”

Photo courtesy of Jonti-craft

The visits translate into other gains. Parents mention new behaviors, such as a surge in kids’ language skills and excitement about learning. Mothers note that their children talk more, and speak with larger vocabularies. Kids with little previous interest or familiarity with reading become curious and engaged. “Now my son is interested in looking at books. He pretends even though he does not yet read!” noted one pleased parent. And sometimes the change extends to overcoming fears about school, as this mother explained, “The program motivated my son to look at books, learn new words, and want to go to school.”

Parents are getting educated, too. They explain feeling like they are learning alongside their children: learning to read and explain books in interesting ways, to deal with their children’s questions, and to speak more English.

As Amy Ross, WJCS’s Assistant Director of the Parent-Child Home Program explained, “The program speaks to parents’ needs as much as to those of children. Home visitors show them techniques for speaking and playing with their preschoolers, in ways that expand vocabulary and understanding. Parents then adopt and adapt these techniques. Library fliers, the parenting magazine Ser Padre, and bimonthly newspapers in Spanish and English are distributed to families. We want parents to see how important their role is, and to see the impact they can have on their child’s intellectual development through reading, playing and having fun together.”

The visitors find the program rewarding, as well. “You feel like you’re doing something that makes a difference in the long run,” said Elizabeth Stephens, who visited four Mamaroneck families last year and is visiting another four this year. “Over time, you see more talkativeness. You bond with the family and really develop a relationship.”

Over 2,560 children in Westchester have participated in WJCS’s “Parent Child Home Program” since 1972. This year’s participants from Mamaroneck have come through a network of contacts at WJCS, local schools, Community Action Program (CAP), The Guidance Center, Hispanic Resource Center, Washingtonville Housing Alliance, and the Women, Infants and Children Educational and Supplemental Food Program (WIC).

“Enabling such a partnership to reach local families, and enrich their children’s education, is something in which the Mamaroneck Schools Foundation takes great pride,” said Sabrina Fiddelman, Foundation President. “We’re delighted to provide such a wonderful head start for learning, and believe that there is no better investment for the future than equipping our children with the best skills they can develop.”

The Mamaroneck Schools Foundation, founded seven years ago, is a volunteer non-profit community organization that provides schools with supplemental funds or innovative programs, materials and enhanced facilities and equipment beyond the regular school curriculum. MSF has awarded nearly $ 700,000 in grants to programs in every public school in the district.

Photo courtesy of Jonti-craft

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