TYLER, Texas — A literacy program between Chapel Hill ISD and the University of Texas at Tyler is assisting parents in getting involved with their children's education.
Once a month, researchers from the Parent-Powered Literacy Project meet with students and parents in the program for approximately an hour and a half. During these sessions, parents and researchers work closely alongside students to expose them to early language and literacy skills before students ever enter the classroom.
Researchers keep in touch with parents between sessions, consulting with them over the phone and on Zoom to answer questions they may have about the program.
"It has been great connecting with other parents and talking to them and getting other ideas and hearing what they do with their kids and implementing that in my home," Rebecca Hastings, a mother with a student in the program, said.
The program is designed to help build parent capacity to mentally stimulate children between ages 0 and 4.
"So these babies are raised to be good readers. They have the skills, the language of literacy skills, the reading skills, so that they can succeed. When they go to kindergarten, they go to school," Dr. Kouider Mokhtari, director of the Parent-Powered Literacy Project said.
He added the program is already beginning to see positive results.
"We see some movement in the right direction. We see some kids beginning to to develop interest in reading, to engage with books that their parents are reading with them."
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