Preventing Failure Through Early Intervention
Too many of the children who come to the James Still Learning Center have already failed at school. This failure creates self-esteem issues and feelings of inadequacy that can be difficult for a child to overcome.
Too many of the children who come to the James Still Learning Center have already failed at school. This failure creates self-esteem issues and feelings of inadequacy that can be difficult for a child to overcome.
In 2008, Hindman Settlement School launched an Early Childhood Initiative. The goal of the Initiative is to reach children who demonstrate early signs of learning differences and prevent them from failing by providing education services at an early stage in their educational development.
In order to do this, the Settlement School has been working in collaboration with state-funded preschool, Head Start and childcare providers to develop and implement an early intervention process.
In February and March of 2008, the Center implemented a trial run of the Early Childhood Initiative. Only Head Start classrooms participated in the screening, though school district personnel participated in orientation and training.
While the Initiative is in the early stages, the numbers are positive:
- Over 60 kindergarten and preschool teachers attended at least an orientation or area meeting.
- 254 Head Start children, who would be entering kindergarten in the fall of 2008, were evaluated using the National Center for Learning Disabilities Checklist.
- Of the 254 children, 65 children were identified as having “indicators” of future learning differences or dyslexia.
- 20 of these children and their parents attended an area meeting for further screening with “Get Ready to Read.”
- The James Still Learning Center’s Evaluation Committee evaluated 23 percent of the children attending area meetings.
- In the last six years, the Learning Center evaluated 20 children under the age of six. In the last six months, the Center has had 15 inquiries for evaluations from this age group.
- The 2008 Summer Tutoring Program had six children under the age of six enrolled.
In October 2008, Hindman Settlement School sponsored an Institute to explore current research on this subject.
Through the training I’ve received as a parent tutor and the time I’ve invested as a tutor in the program here, I’ve learned many new strategies for helping Robert and other children who learn differently.
Parent of student in After-School Tutoring program
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