What
is an Early Intervention Program Back
to Top
 An
Early Intervention Program is a way to find students at highest
risk of reading failure early enough to prevent it.
The National
Institutes of Health (NIH) state that 95 percent of poor readers
can be brought up to grade level if they receive effective help
early. The window of opportunity is during kindergarten and first
grade.
The longer
help is delayed, the harder it is for the child to catch up. If
help is provided in fourth grade (instead of in kindergarten),
it takes four times as long to improve the same skills by the
same amount.
That is why
the California State Board of Education and the Superintendent
of Public Instruction stated in their report, Every Child A Reader,
that a balanced and comprehensive approach to reading must contain:
“a
powerful early intervention program that provides individual
tutoring for children at risk of reading failure.”
The Barton
System has been used successfully in many Early Intervention programs
at public and private schools.
To learn
how to find kindergarten or first-grade children at greatest risk,
and how to use parents as volunteer tutors, read on.
Back
to Top
Find
At-Risk Students Back
to Top
|
The
best predictor of a child destined for later reading failure
is a child who lacks age-appropriate phonemic awareness.
- “The
lack of phonemic awareness
is the core and causal factor
separating normal readers
from disabled readers”
-
Keith
Stanovich
NIH Researcher
|
|
More recent
research has expanded that list to include 3 reliable early predictors:
phonemic awareness, rapid naming, and auditory memory.
All three
are essential pre-reading skills. Children who
are below age-appropriate norms in any one of those three areas
are at extremely high risk of later reading failure.
Since these
are pre-reading skills, children can be tested
as young as age five – before they’ve been exposed
to formal reading instruction.
Susan Barton
recommends public and private schools screen all
kindergartners or beginning first graders using the CTOPP. CTOPP
stands for Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing. It is
published by Pro-Ed Books, 800-897-3202, www.proedinc.com.
Their part number for the CTOPP is 8930.
If a school
gives the same test to all students, they do
not need parental approval.
Students
whose composite scores in either Phonemic Awareness, Rapid Naming
or Auditory Memory are lower than the 35th percentile at are extremely
high risk of later reading failure or reading disability.
In fact,
the scoring manual states that a low score in any one of these
areas is a hallmark of dyslexia.
Back
to Top
Find
Volunteer Tutors
Back to Top
 Once
you’ve identified the at-highest-risk students using the
CTOPP, you need to create a pool of volunteer tutors.
If your school
has involved parents, recruit interested parents by making a presentation
at a PTA meeting or by sending home a flyer.
Some school
districts use high school students to tutor the first graders.
Others recruit
volunteers from retirement and independent-living centers. Lonesome
grandparents make wonderful tutors.
Just be sure
each volunteer tutor can pass our Tutor
Screening – to ensure they hear sounds well enough to
be a tutor.
Then hold
a tutor training day. Run the training day using our Facilitator’s
Guide while showing our Level 1 Tutor Training DVDs. (Everything
you need is included in the Site License version of the Barton
System.)
Then match
each tutor with a student and have them start tutoring on campus,
twice a week — before, during or after school.
The
Ten Steps
Here
are the ten steps schools follow to start an Early Intervention
Program:
- Appoint
a coordinator – a staff person or a volunteer.
- Find the
high-risk students.
- Find the
tutors.
- Obtain
a site license for the Barton Reading & Spelling System.
- Conduct
a tutor training session for Level 1.
- Start
tutoring.
- Observe
each tutor once.
- Four weeks
later, conduct a tutor training session for Level 2.
- Observe
each tutor once.
- Students
progress at different rates, so let tutors borrow training
DVDs
for the other levels.
For detailed
information on each step, click
here.
Back
to Top
Research
on Early Intervention Programs Back
to Top
For
a summary of the research on the importance and effectiveness
of early intervention programs, click
here.
Back
to Top
Grants
Back
to Top
If
you use parents as volunteer tutors, your program
may fall into the category of Family Literacy.
Barbara
Bush Foundation
- Supporting
family literacy grants.
www.barbarabushfoundation.com
Other grants
are available for Early Intervention Programs, including:
- School
Site Councils
- Many public
schools have obtained funding through their school site council.
- NEA
Foundation
- Grant
money can be used for innovative ideas that improve student
achievement.
Grants range from $ 1,000 to $ 3,000.
www.nfie.org/programs/howtoapply.htm
- School
Grants Website
- This website
offers grant writing tips for teachers, as well as a list of
grants available for K-12 programs.
www.schoolgrants.org
For more
information on grants, and grant writers, click
here.
Back
to Top
|
