On April 2, 2024, the MSU Child Development Laboratories (CDL) held an early childhood literacy film screening and expert panel event for parents at Haslett High School with support from Haslett Public Schools. The film, “Building the Reading Brain,” explores the importance of reading for child development and how best to prepare children to tackle this task.
Laurie Linscott, director of the CDL, organized the event in support of March being National Reading Month. The goal of the event was to equip families with information on their children’s brain development and actionable ways they could help their kids develop literacy.
“Families are their children's first teachers” Linscott explained. “Literacy development starts at birth and there are so many things families do to support it- talking to their babies, reading books with their toddlers, pointing out pictures and labeling them, turn taking in conversation, modeling language and vocabulary!”
WKAR produced the documentary shown at the event, with many scenes shot at the East Lansing CDL site and head teachers Rachel Stark and Britney Reason featured in the film.
Some of the film takeaways related to concrete ways parents can interact with their children to help them develop their literacy skills, especially in the first five years which are shown to be the most important. For example, the importance of waiting for kids to sound out the words, celebrating any steps toward writing including scribbles, singing and rhyming, and word play were all strategies the film demonstrated that parents can use at home.
After the film, a panel of early childhood literacy experts shared about the age group they work with and specific strategies families can use with each age group. The panel discussion was facilitated by Robin Pizzo, Education director at WKAR and featured:
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Rachel Stark a teacher of young toddlers at the Child Development Laboratories.
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Britney Reason a teacher of three-year-olds at the Child Development Laboratories.
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Erica Colón a teacher of four-year-olds at the Child Development Laboratories.
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Karen Amachree a Kindergarten teacher at Haslett Public Schools.
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Nikki Freedburg a Multi-tiered Systems of Support teacher of K-1 at Haslett Public Schools.
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Laura Tortorelli an MSU College of Education Faculty member who is featured in the documentary due to her research into the ways teachers teach children to read.
“For 4-year-olds, we use lots of rhyming and singing -it’s my favorite part of the day,” Erica Colón shared, head teacher at the CDL. “Parents can help their kids practice writing their letters and identifying the letter sounds. Honor all forms of writing, it can be scribbles, or letter-like forms. Anything they’re putting on paper is meaningful and showcases their work. Go on a walk and point out letters while playing I-spy. Play with sounds when using refrigerator magnets. Make up real or silly words. Rhyme when you’re walking to the car. Find any chance you get to write with your child. Make a to-do list, grocery note or send a message.”
The combination of the film and the expert panel provided some key takeaways for parents.
“We are really big readers in our house so we have always put a healthy but heavy emphasis on reading books together all the time,” said Meagan DeCoster, parent of two children at the CDL. “But understanding how the brain works, how it builds language skills has completely changed my perspective in terms of how we involve them in all of our day-to-day activities. That going to a grocery store and reading labels or helping make a grocery list helps them understand that letters mean something, that it’s so integral to our lives. That even their scribbled attempts at letters or drawings means so much to them, even if it doesn’t to us quite yet. It’s made me want to put so much more emphasis on the process and not the progress.”
To put on the film screening and panel, Linscott collaborated with Capital Area District Library (CADL), WKAR, Detroit PBS & The Michigan Learning Channel’s Read! Write! Roar! with PNC also providing resources for the event.
The full film is available for free viewing here:
https://video.wkar.org/video/building-the-reading-brain-fpkzlp/
The CDL is part of the MSU Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the MSU College of Social Science. For more information, visit hdfs.msu.edu.
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By Katie Rose Frey