Family Literacy #136

Becky Dyer:

There are 105,000 people in the state of Maine out of a population of just over a million who don't read, write and compute well enough to function in today's society.

Liza McFadden:

The face of literacy is not as simple to see as the face of a lot of other things. 46% of kids in Maine are not reading at the level they should be in third grade. That's unbelievable.

Cassandra Grantham:

We really think that Maine has the chance to really be an economic powerhouse if we just have the right people here, if we have the right educated workforce.

Kathryn Landon-Malone:

I always love to show a two month old baby the books because they have both pictures and words. It's always interesting to watch the babies. Do they go to the picture first or do they go to the word first? And there's a real difference and be kind of fun to see what their SAT scores were down the road.

Catherine Anderson:

They see them in their homes. They know how to pick them up. They know how to, I mean, all the basics that we think as kids should have to open them up. How you read a book, a story has a beginning, middle and end. That sort of comfort and competence comes in a much larger way. And they have a shared literacy experience whether they know it or not.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 136, Family Literacy, airing for the first time on Sunday, April 20, 2014. As the original medical advisor to the Raising Readers program and the mother of three children, I have long been a supporter of literacy efforts in Maine and across the country. Today we speak with Liza McFadden and Becky Dyer of the Barbara Bush foundation for Family literacy, which is 25 years old this year, and with Cassandra Grantham, Katherine Landau Malone and Katherine Anderson about Raising Readers, which IS in its 15th year. These organizations are doing impressive work and I hope that you'll take a moment to listen to our conversations about the importance of literacy in our lives and how we can bring reading to our children and our families. Thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Listeners of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast know that we are huge proponents of literacy. I myself was with the Raising Readers Literacy organization here in the state of Maine for 10 years, and during that time I actually intersected with one of our guests today.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This guest is Becky Dyer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

She is the research and development director

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

at the Barbara Bush foundation for Literacy. She's worked in adult education for over 35 years.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

While working in the Maine Department of

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Education, she administered the Maine Family Literacy

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Initiative in partnership with the Barbara Bush foundation for Family Literacy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Becky serves as a trainer and speaker for educational organizations across the country.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

She and her husband Don, live on Pequocket Lake in Leamington, Maine. Thanks for coming in today.

Becky Dyer:

Thank you for having us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

With Becky is Liza McFadden, who is the president of the Barbara Bush foundation for Family Literacy. She's known for her work in the development of creative and sustainable public private partnerships that respond to critical community needs.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Liza was also appointed by President George

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate to serve on the National Institute for Literacy Board.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Liza is the mother of two middle

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

school students and she has traveled from her home in Florida to join us today. Thank you.

Liza McFadden:

Thank you for having us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Literacy, it's something that's getting a lot

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

of play, especially lately. And as a doctor who knows how important it is for patients to be able to read prescriptions and understand medical instructions, it's not a hard sell for me. Has this always been something that you've easily convinced people is important?

Liza McFadden:

Well, I think part of the issue is that people really are unaware of how many people struggle with literacy and as you say, how much it affects everything from your health to what you do with your life. 30 million Americans read at less than a fifth grade reading level, and that is having a devastating impact on everything. The people who are in the lowest literacy level, those reading less than a fifth grade level, 20% of them say they're having problems today with their health in some way. And that's because a lot of times they're not reading their prescriptions correctly. They don't know how to use the asthma inhaler with their child correctly. It goes on and on. They're maybe not eating correctly. So the impact for literacy is extremely challenging because it's we call it America's biggest challenge at the Barbara Bush foundation because people think that everything's okay because they're not seeing how much it impacts. And that was really how Barbara Bush, in fact, decided to focus on literature. She said, you know, if I could focus on reading, it would be the way that we could help with so many other ills in today's society. So that was really the impetus 25 years ago for starting the Barbara Bush Foundation.

Becky Dyer:

Yeah, I think reading illiteracy is really an epidemic and it's hidden. There are so many people who can't read, write, and compute, and we don't think about how it impacts our all of us. It increases our health care costs when they go to the emergency room. It increases our welfare costs when they aren't able to get a job. I think it's huge for the state of Maine. There are 105,000 people in the state of Maine out of a population of just over a million, who don't read, write, and compute well enough to function in today's society.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So talk to me about family literacy and the definition of family literacy. I know, Becky, you have a background in adult education and raising readers. The program that you and I were both involved in was 0 to age 5. Why the emphasis on the family?

Becky Dyer:

Well, family literacy has three pieces to it. We work with the parent who doesn't have a GED or a high school diploma to improve their literacy skills so that they can lift the family out of poverty. Because if a parent, a child, isn't responsible for the family's poverty, it's the parent. And until we raise the literacy levels of parents, children will continue to live in poverty. So we work with them to get their GED to prepare them for college and career. The second piece of it is we work with children birth to age 8, but predominantly we're talking about birth to 5 to help them build the developmental skills they need to be ready to go to school and to succeed in school. Now, the third piece is the parent and child together time. We want parents to understand that they are their child's first and most important teacher. So we want them to experience activities that they can do with their child at home. So we model them. We have them try them, we give them feedback, they give us feedback, and then we tell them how they can extend that activity in their home.

Liza McFadden:

You know, Lisa, when the Barbara Bush foundation was formed 25 years ago, people didn't really realize how important learning was for infants. And we know there's this gap in particular between birth to age 3, where parents who have low literacy have a really hard time finding a place to a get an education for themselves. And B, have their child be educated at the same time. So when we open up these family literacy programs, and the Barbara Bush foundation has helped open up about 1,500 across the nation over the last 25 years. We have waiting lists though, on average over 100 people. So the access barriers that are out there are tremendous for people who really want to change their lives. And what we're finding is that for these little kids who come into our programs, they're developmentally delayed really significantly. The average difference between a child who's from low literate parents and one who is from well educated parents is a third 30 million word gap by the time they start first grade. 30 million words they haven't heard that. They haven't had as many bedtime stories, they haven't had as many people talking to them about interesting things they see in a store. And people forget how much that verbal words and communications become ideas as you get bigger. And so those nouns that you are learning when you're a little kid become these big ideas to change the world when you become larger. So we're very, very focused on, on how do we tap into helping that brain power of 0 to 3 year olds because there is no state or federal government dollars really there. And what we've found with our programs is 85%, on average of these kids come in significantly delayed, but by the end of a year of being with us, only 15% are. So our goal is to get all these kids at kindergarten on par with their peers. And that's how we break the intergenerational cycle. And if we can get those parents excited about learning, that correl between parent learning and children learning as a mom, you know, is huge. So that's kind of what we're trying to do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Describe to me exactly what it is that the Barbara Bush foundation is doing with reading. What are some of the programs that you do?

Liza McFadden:

Okay, well, so the one that we're probably most known for are Barbara Bush grants and scholarships. And a Barbara Bush scholarship basically is worth a value of, I'm going to say about 1800-20, $23. And a family receives that, but they take it to a school that is going to offer the parent an opportunity to come to school three to four days a week, work on their English language skills or earn their ged and their child is going to go into that school door with them, but they're going to go into their own classroom and as a two year old, for example, start learning about colors. And maybe the parent is learning about Adjectives. And then there's this part of the day where the parent and child come together. We call it pack time, parent and children together time. Where if the parent's reading with the child and they're learning their colors, hopefully the light bulb is going to go off in the parent's mind of, wow, I was just learning about adjectives. Now I'm teaching my kid adjectives. And that was because I just taught them colors. So we're really trying to do an integrated curriculum. And that's why we think the power of that is that it doesn't end at the school door. When they go back home, they're going to know how to enforce it because it's been modeled. Becky, you can talk about some of the programs here in Maine.

Becky Dyer:

Sure. We have programs in Sanford, which is a center based program. They have a beautiful early childhood center. While the parents are going to take their adult ed classes, the children are going to the early learning center. Those children can stay in that early learning center even when the parents go to York County Community College. So there's one example, we have one in Rockland where children are going to early literacy classes at the local library while the parents go to their adult ed classes in Bath, they're working with the regional vocational school in RSU 1. So the children are in early childhood classes with the students at Bath Vocational School school. So they're learning their early childhood training with the children in the family literacy program while mom and dad are in the adult ed program. Right next door. We have a program at Learning Works in Portland which is predominantly English as a Second Language. We have one in Thorndike which is a virtual school. Because Thorndike is a 400 square mile radius of school district. They were having trouble getting families who had enough gas or reliable transportation into a program. And they were only doing a home based, which was not intensive enough. They developed a virtual school. They give families a laptop and a hotspot so they can access the Internet and they go. They create their own little avatar and can go into Mountain View High School and take classes. They even have a career center. They can take community college classes and they can take parenting classes through the DHHS parent place. So we do. There are a number of different models. We want the model to fit the community and the community needs.

Liza McFadden:

And then we have a second program that we've just started in Maine and it's called Teen Trendsetters. And it's a program where teens come in and mentor first, second or third graders who are at least Six months behind in reading. And we teach them reading through the sciences because what we want is to really excite kids about reading. And we also want to do it in such a way that they see science as fun and exciting. So they start with baby animals, and then they go to animals. Then they do weather, and then they do scientists. And then every week or every other week, a book goes home with the child so that they can read to their parent and show them the skills that they've learned. And we're really excited about this program. It's just gotten started. Becky can talk about it where it's gotten started.

Becky Dyer:

It's regional school unit 14 in Windom, and they have had great success. And now the middle school in Raymond, which is part of that regional school unit, also wants to get on board with their elementary school students.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Are there pockets of Maine that are less literate than other parts of the state?

Becky Dyer:

I would say no, not really. You know, in certain cities, there is a larger ESL population. So that may impact the illiteracy level in Lewiston and Portland.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So this is English as a Second language?

Becky Dyer:

Yep. Or there could be real rural areas where there are pockets of illiteracy, but the numbers aren't as high because there are fewer people. So, no, I think it's a widespread problem.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how do we identify people who have literacy issues, either in Maine or nationally? Because, as you've said, it can kind of fly under the radar.

Becky Dyer:

Too often people are able to use excuses like, can I take the application home and I'll bring it back later? Sometimes that means that there's someone at home who will help them fill it out. Or if they say, I forgot my glasses, that's sometimes a key that you might want to be paying a little more attention. So there are cues that adult educators are trained to look for,

Liza McFadden:

but without

Becky Dyer:

really doing assessments, we don't know what their vocabulary levels are, what their comprehension levels are. One of the difficulties of adult literacy is the that those levels can vary. So you could have two people in the same class, and one person could have a high comprehension level but a low vocabulary level, and it would be just the opposite for the next person. So you can't teach them as a class because they have different needs. So that's why a lot of adult reading has to be individualized.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is this the same nationally? Are you able to identify people with the same sorts of assessments that Becky is describing?

Liza McFadden:

Yeah, we use different assessments, and part of what we actually have on our website is what we call the gap map. So when you ask, are there areas of the country that have a tremendous need? Absolutely. One of the reasons that we're now spending a lot of time in Detroit is that on the front page of the paper, they estimated 46% of their city has a need for. For greater literacy skills. So there are certainly segments where we're looking at, if we have limited resources, what's the best place to invest? The Barbara Bush Foundation. A lot of people don't realize it's a public charity. So Mrs. Bush has lent her name for 25 years. Her son Neil is dyslexic. And part of her passion for this is that she realizes mothers all across the country and grandmothers want to help their kids. And so what we try to do is bring that spirit that she really believed in to the areas of high need. But as Becky said, there's need, and you can be well to do and have a child who's really struggling with literacy. The face of literacy is not as simple to see as the face of a lot of other things. 46% of kids in Maine are not reading at the level they should be in third grade. That's unbelievable. There's major policy implications, and I realize Maine is making a lot of focus on trying to improve the education, but the fact that 46% of the kids are not reading on grade level is traumatic. I will tell you one thing we see in programs in Maine is people with high school diplomas who still are really not literate. And that's a shame. It's a travesty that the state invests those kind of dollars and that kids can come out at the other end and still not have the skills they're going to need for a workplace.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

it's not a question of being literate or not literate. There are different levels of of literacy. Is that true?

Liza McFadden:

That's absolutely true.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So talk to me a little bit about what that means, what these different levels are, and how we identify people who might fall in these categories.

Liza McFadden:

So I think in adult literacy there's typically been this conversation where there's what's called basic literacy. And basically that means that if you have literacy that's less than a fifth grade level, that's considered basic literacy. What we try to do is walk everything over to a grade level equivalency and talk about it almost the same way you would talk about a K12 education. Because we find that policymakers otherwise really struggle with understanding what's basic literacy and what's functional literacy. Functional literacy in the adult literacy world is typically about an eighth grade education. And there's this saying in education is pretty well known, you learn to read until the third grade, then you read to learn. And so, you know, when we talk about the folks who are less than a third grade or reading proficiency, those are the people who are really struggling with, you know, reading a basic sentence. When you talk about people that are struggling with functional skills, that's impacting their everyday lives. They're having a difficult time understanding the bus schedule. They're having a difficult time helping their child with some of the health issues we talked about previously. So there is definitely a difference about it, you know, the levels. But I think the main thing is having folks understand that you're not never too early to get an education. 0 to 3 years old, and you're never too old. I mean, you know, we have folks, any age who come back. And I think that that's really the critical part to we believe that literacy is really almost like a civil right and that unfortunately in our country today, if you're between the ages of 5 and 18, it's really clear cut that where you can go to get an education. If you're younger than that or older than that, sometimes it's really challenging to understand that there's help out there for you and that there are these opportunities that we're talking about. Only about 6% of those in need and maintenance, parents or adults are actually getting services right now. So a huge part that we are committed to is building awareness in this country. 25 years ago, you could go, you would not go to a cocktail party and say you had breast cancer. But I think the Komen foundation has done an unbelievable job of bringing that to the forefront and saying, look, lots of women get breast cancer. We need to do walks, we need to do research, we need, need to change people's perception on that. We have not done as good of a job on saying there's a literacy challenge in this country and people have a right. Things have happened to them. They've had to get pulled out of school to go to work. They had the challenge of a learning disability. We haven't given them the understanding that there are other ways to learn and that they can be welcomed back just like we've done with breast cancer. You know, it's that, you know, it would be, I think, really challenging to go to a cocktail party and say, I don't have a high school diploma today, but I'm going back. But yet you should be proud that you're going to go back. You know, folks don't realize that, you know, one out of four people don't have a high school diploma in our country. It's a lot of people. So I think the conversation needs to be broader and I think that's part of what we're trying to do. Becky?

Becky Dyer:

Well, you think about the types of jobs that are available now, that the skills that you need keep increasing, but we still have a lot of People who need to work on those skills to get there. I think we need to have that conversation about how do we bring those people back into the workforce, what services can we provide to them, how do we help them navigate some of those barriers to participating in these programs? And that's one of the big things that we try to do, is get them beyond those barriers and actually taking part in the program.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I was filling out an application recently for a job as a physician with a major medical center. And the first question was, can you read? And I thought, well, that's kind of interesting because if I can't read, then. And this wasn't just for me, it was for all employees of the medical system. But if I can't read, then how can I read the question that says can you read? So it's an interesting conundrum that we are actually asking this question, but we can't really ask it in the same way that we have been. So how do employers and other people, how do they deal with that issue?

Becky Dyer:

I don't know.

Liza McFadden:

I know it's very challenging for employers. I was talking with one of the largest employers in our country and they said, you know, Liza, one of the challenges we have is that the folks don't necessarily want to admit to us exactly what their literacy levels are because they feel that will impact their chances of being able to move up in the system. So you've hit the nail on the head. A big part of it is what I was talking about before. Stigma, right? There's this giant stigma associated with what, you know, people know that education, what is going to move them forward. And they realize it's critically important, yet at the same time, they're almost, they feel disempowered about how to go and find that education. And because of the great stigma, they don't want to admit that they don't have the education. It is a real challenge for particularly people, companies who are large companies that are employing folks who have lower wage jobs. The CEO of Walmart is on our board of directors and he was sharing with me that, you know, in five years they're not going to have nearly as many cashiers as they do today because they're going to be, you know, and you guys have all seen this. You can come up and you can scan your stuff yourself. Well, they're going to do that. And I said, well, how can you do that? And they're like, if you're in a Walmart store, there's video cameras. I mean, they're going to make sure, that. That it's done appropriately and that people aren't stealing things, but that's a lot less people that need to be employed. And it's not just Walmart. It could be any company. And so as we think about the shifting economy and the skill level that people need, I mean, the reason that we have this income inequality in this country is all about education. And so I keep going back to the same message is it's not too late to learn. And part of what we're trying to do do is say, you know, let's open up the curtains on this need and encourage folks. Let's have a discussion about the fact that there is a stigma and say to folks, you know what, there's great places here that will take you in, especially in Maine, and offer you opportunities. The waiting lists here are not what we see in other parts of the country. So I think that's really good news for listeners who might have sons, daughters, nieces, nephews who or grandparents that want to go back to school. I think there's opportunity here.

Becky Dyer:

I think there's plenty of opportunity here. It's harder for us to find the people to come to a family literacy program here in Maine than it is in other parts of the country, which I've always found interesting, but I think it's a little bit cultural here. We've always had industries that supported people without a high school diploma. You could work in the woods, you could be in the paper plants. You know, you didn't have to. Back when I was a kid, there was the chicken industry, you know, the poultry business. You didn't have to have a high school diploma to do those things. So parents made good money. They didn't have to have that high school diploma. So I'm not sure that it's always encouraged within the family. There's not a value of education necessarily in some families. So there are a lot of people who could benefit from our programs. It's just always harder for us to identify them and get them in the door.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think that we are getting better about recognizing. Well, one, learning disabilities and the impact of learning disabilities on our literacy levels, and two, learning styles, that some people may not have a disability in the absolute sense of the word, but that they may learn differently? Do you think that's something that we're seeing more and more as we study the brain and it's become an important part of our society?

Becky Dyer:

I think so. I think we're more aware of what some of those learning disabilities are, and we have some Techniques in our basket that we can work with people. For example, some students can't be around for fluorescent lights. Those overhead lights reflect differently on the paper. And so just putting a baseball cap on that child and blocking that fluorescent light sometimes makes a difference. Or sometimes the words on a piece of paper that's white, they just can't see it. So you print the stuff for them on a colored piece of paper. Maybe they do better if it's on a green piece of paper or yellow or pink. So some of those techniques are now in our baskets and we can pull them out when we need them. So yes, I think we're better prepared all the way around to deal with and recognize some of those disabilities. As far as learning styles, I think we all need to practice. I don't think just because I'm a hands on learner means that I should be given hands on learning all the time. I think we need to learn those different styles and be able to utilize all of them. But in a concept that's going to be particularly difficult from me, I might want to start first doing something hands on and then build the skills with the other learning styles.

Liza McFadden:

I heard something shocking recently, which is one out of three people, after they finish high school, never read a book again in their lives. And I personally am someone who loves books, so I found that very disheartening and shocking and sad. And at the same time, we know that people who read, it's almost when they read, their blood pressure goes down, they feel healthier. Reading is to your mind what working out is to your body. And so for healthy lifestyle, reading is incredibly important. You have to work out that brain to get brighter and smarter. We know so much now, more about the brain than we did. There was many years ago a national reading panel and they took all the research that has been done all across the world and sort of collapsed it with what are the things you really need to know to teach reading? What are the things that are really going to make a difference? And that's part of what we try to teach in our classes to our parents. So that they're going to send, you know, yes, 25 minutes a day of reading to your child at night's important. Everybody feels like they know that, right? But only one out of every two parents does it. So, you know, you can say it and you can think it. And yet. And for some of us, those memories of lying in bed with our parents telling us stories at night are some of the best memories we're ever going to have in our life. And yet one out of two people doesn't pass it on to their child to have that memory. And to me that's sad. But then there's other things that we didn't know to do and maybe we didn't do. I didn't necessarily. I now have an 11 and 12 year old. I didn't know to do it with my child. And that is, you know, it's almost as important to have that child as young as possible picking up a pen or a pencil and writing those words or type. You can say typing those words now, right. However, using the keystrokes to start writing their name again and again and again. Rapid repetition of numbers and letters for them. For those child be able to say again and again. The ABCs, the counting one through 10 and the doing it with their hands are equally as important as those reading. So I think there's tips like that that we try to use in our programs, drive home with parents and the things that all of us as parents can get a little bit better at. And frankly, we're going to make our own minds healthier as we stretch our minds about how we can be great learners.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How do people find out about the Barbara Bush foundation for Family Literacy either in the state of Maine or other places in the country?

Liza McFadden:

Well, the easiest way is probably to go on our website, the Barbara Bush foundation. And you know, you can learn a lot about us. We just put up a brand new website so we're in the midst of trying to tell our story as best we can. There's a gap map up there if people are interested in sort of, you know, getting more statistical information. There are good descriptions of the scholarship program and the teen trendsetter program and some of the other kinds of work that we're doing. So that I would recommend that, and Becky's contact information is up there if they're specifically interested in finding out more about programs in Maine.

Becky Dyer:

But we also are on Facebook and Twitter.

Liza McFadden:

Oh yes. So they're 8,000 followers on Facebook. Please join us. We're lots of fun.

Becky Dyer:

And here in Maine we do. We've been operating here in Maine since 1996. So we've had family literacy programs here in Maine. The Barbara Bush foundation has been very generous. We've funded about 300 programs at over $5 million total here in Maine in those years. This year, for the sixth year in a row, we're doing our annual literacy conference called the 6th Annual Literacy Connections Conference. This year it's Celebrate Family Literacy. We have over 300 early childhood through adult education and even community college literacy providers attend this conference. So they do learn about us through the conference this year for the last six years. They have anyway.

Liza McFadden:

And if you're a new mother, you should receive our Love Relearn Journal when you're coming out of the hospital. It was kicked off by Mrs. Barbara Bush and Mrs. LePage in June, and it is a book chalk filled with tips on how to help your child with literacy and nutrition. And it's all about, you know, what we were talking about earlier, healthy mind and a healthy body and how they go together and how to do that for every stage and age of your child. So we're trying to do a little bit more to get out there and let Mainers know. The Barbara Bush foundation. You know, just like the Bush family, this is our vacation home and our real home, too. And we enjoy being here and we want people to know, you know, that we're here to share and grow with you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Having Met Barbara Bush, Mrs. Barbara Bush once or twice, part of raising readers. She's a dynamic individual and I'm sure she won't remember me, but please give her my thanks for having played such an important part in family literacy. And congratulations on 25 years with the Barbara Bush foundation for Family Literacy. We've been talking with Liza McFadden, who is the president of the Barbara Bush Literacy foundation, the foundation for Family Literacy, and also with Becky Dyer, who is a research and development director. Thank you so much for coming in and for all the work you're doing bringing reading to the families in Maine and across the nation.

Liza McFadden:

Thank you for all your supportive literacy that you've been doing and thank you

Becky Dyer:

for this opportunity to share our work.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth Main to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcy

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

i am very pleased to have in the studio with me today three women who are doing great work in the field of literacy, which is one of my favorite topics. I have next to me Cassandra Grantham, who is the program director for child health and raising readers at MaineHealth. She has a master's in health communication and also two children. Catherine Landon Malone is a pediatric nurse practitioner with over 30 years experience in pediatric health care. She is most interested in providing healthcare for children that focuses on care keeping kids healthy. She has been on the Raising Readers book selection committee for eight years and she currently practices at True north in Falmouth. Katherine Anderson is a parent who has benefited from Raising Readers and she's also a language arts teacher who's been teaching for the last 15 years. She has two boys, ages 9 and 6, and she, like Catherine Landon Malone, has been on the book selection committee for Raising Readers.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I feel like we're just this brain trust this week.

Cassandra Grantham:

It sounds. It always sounds more impressive when somebody else is saying it back to you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it is impressive and it's really important.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I was the original medical director for Raising Readers, so I know that it

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

was really important when we started it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And now you're how many years in?

Cassandra Grantham:

Almost 15.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Almost 15 years in. And everybody in the room here has children or grandchildren that have benefited from Raising Readers. Let's first start with what is Raising Readers for people who do not know.

Cassandra Grantham:

Sure. So Raising Readers is a health and literacy program that works across the entire state of Maine, providing books to children ages birth through five, both at their birth right, in the hospital, birth center, or at home, depending on where a child is Born and through, well, child visits. So providers actually hand out our books to parents and families, and we counsel those families on reading to kids and the importance of early literacy and brain development and bonding and really just preparing kids for success in school and life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So, Katherine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And there's two Katherines, so it gets a little confusing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But Kathryn Landon Malone, you have been a pediatric health practitioner for quite a long time, and you've actually been giving these books out in your own practice

Kathryn Landon-Malone:

since the very beginning of the program. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So tell me what your experience with this has been and why it's been important to you.

Kathryn Landon-Malone:

Well, there's a whole lot of reasons. One is the kids come and, you know, they're worried about those shots and people looking in their ears and things like that. So it's great to start a visit with. I have this great book for you. And in my practice, I have lots of time with kids, so I often read the books to the kids or show them and, you know, then talk about the books. And so to me, it's like the kids have associated not just their, well, child checkups with those shots, but also with something like a book. It also is a great opportunity to model for parents how you would read a book and spend that time with kids. And I always ask kids, what do you do at bedtime to get yourself ready for bed? And it's rare, if ever, that I ever hear, if ever I don't hear that they're getting stories as the last thing at the end of the day. And that so gives me again another opportunity to talk about how wonderful it is to end the day with that nice, coherent, snuggly moment that fosters that attachment bonding and stimulates brain development? So many good reasons.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There are.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There are a lot of good reasons. And what have you seen as a result of bringing kids into your practice, exposing them to books over time?

Kathryn Landon-Malone:

I have one story that I was thinking about last night. About a year ago, I got an email from a family that now lives out in Colorado. And the kiddo who now is like 7 or 8 was reading the book to the younger one that they got at a, well, visit. And so as she was reading, the dad emailed me and said she stopped right in the middle. And she said to her brother, now, you know, we got this book from Dr. Malone. So it's really important that we know this book. It was the one about the little boy who wanted a dog, a little dog, blue. And I think they got a dog out of that book, actually.

Becky Dyer:

I think they convinced their dad.

Kathryn Landon-Malone:

So hearing stories like that is so delightful for us all to hear about what a great job we do in choosing those books and how much kids really love them and connect them with that checkup and the provider and the practice.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Katherine Anderson, as a language arts teacher, what do you notice about children who have been exposed to books earlier versus children who have not?

Catherine Anderson:

Well, I enjoyed bringing this up at the book selection committee last week, is that the teachers in my school year two years ago, we noticed that there was a sort of the collective fluency in the room. There's a marked shift for me. And I thought, there's something different with this group of kids in my class, this sixth grade group, and it wasn't, you know, I still have struggling readers and there's all sorts of things that get in the way of a child being a successful reader. But it was as if there's a lightness and there was a sense of, I'm a reader, I'm a reader. And I couldn't quite get it. What, what is it that these kids, they're not, they're not trodden down. They can come in like, I got books. And after a few, you know, a few weeks in, I realized there was this. The piece was, these were all kids. Now, not all of them had lived in Maine all their lives, but a majority of them had. And I made that, connected those dots. I said, how many of you remember going to the doctor and getting all these hands up? You did. What does she mean? Got a book at the doctor's office. And as we talked, the other language arts teacher and through the building, it was that sort of collective, ah, these kids, they see them in their homes, they know how to pick them up, they know how to, I mean, all the basics that we think as kids should have to open them up. How you read a book, a story has a beginning, middle, end. That sort of comfort and competence comes for a much, in a much larger way. And they have a shared literacy experience, whether they know it or not as well. So I think it's subtle and I couldn't point to data saying this is different then, but we feel it and have felt it ever since, and the kids remember and they have a positive association. Which I just wanted to add one more piece around that. As I was hearing Dr. Malone speaking and thinking, you know, when I, as a new mom go to the doctor's office, I'm sure that if my son has an earache or there's something wrong, that the medicine that he's going to give me or suggest or that the procedure, the practice is something that's been thought about, there's been research, and he's not just gonna think, oh, how about we try this? And I feel like the books, I was thinking about this. The books have that same weight. If the doctor or the nurse practitioner gives me the book, it must be a really good one. And I think as a parent, especially for, you know, as a new parent, you could go to any number of bookstores and get really bogged down. And was this the right one? And there's that guesswork has been taken out a little bit, and now I get to be on both sides as parent and on selection committee. I just sort of was connecting those dots. And that's really, you know, we give this the doctor, she'll know, or the nurse, he'll know. And that's helpful to me as a new mom.

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

both of the Kathryns, both of you have been on the book selection committee and I know that, Cassie, you're on the book selection committee. You're sort of heading the charge. What do you look for in books

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

that will go out to doctors offices?

Cassandra Grantham:

Well, it's really interesting because this was my first year on book selection committee. I became the director of the Raising Readers program only about a little less than a year ago. And so our staff of Raising Readers told me that I really needed to actually participate in the entire day of book selection. So we read over 80 books last week or the week before and we literally went from age four all the way down to the newborn books. And we start that way because we get tired of reading 80 some odd books throughout the day. But so when we start, you know, we're really looking for number one. As a health communications expert, I really look at can a parent, any parent across the entire state, can they relate to this story? Can they are they able to explain the story to the child? Are they able to read the words in the book? That's very important to me that the literature is accessible to a parent with very low levels of literacy and very high levels of literacy. We look at, you know, is it developmentally appropriate for the child? Will they be able to understand the story? Does it have for the older kids, does it have a lesson? Does it have a moral? Does it have some Sort of cohesive feel to it. And then, you know, as you get sort of younger, are the colors bright? Is it going to be engaging for the eye? Does it have flaps to lift and things to do in the book? Obviously it has to be safe, but we like to have some, some of those elements too. I don't know. Dr. Malone, if you'd like to talk a little bit about, you know, some of the developmental things that you're looking for, you know, as a provider in the books, because I think that was an interesting realization for me is that really we rely on our. We have several providers in the room and. And they're really looking at certain pieces of the developmental process for kids when they're looking at the book. So.

Kathryn Landon-Malone:

Well, when I read through one first, I read it for me, do I like this story? Does it make sense? And then go back through and really look at the pieces. We had a book a few years ago that we liked except that none of the children riding fast down the hill had bicycle helmets on. So we couldn't give that out at a well child visit because we're all about that. We're also looking at how much ethnic diversity is in this book and are these things that kids in Maine can relate to. And then developmentally, is this appropriate for this age of child? And several years ago might have been the first year I was on the committee, you might remember, Catherine, they put up some developmental characteristics of each age group and that really helped along with that's now in the raising reader books on the back flap. This is how you might use this book with this age child. This is why we think it's developmentally appropriate. So short little words in the beginning. I always love to show a two month old baby the books because they have both pictures and words. It's always interesting to watch the babies. Do they go to the picture first or do they go to the word first? And there's a real difference. And be kind of fun to see what their SAT scores were down the road if they went to verbal words, you know, the words first in the pictures or what part of the brain is lighting up those.

Catherine Anderson:

There's also the part about is the mom or the dad or the auntie gonna pick up that book again? And really we think about that like, does this have. If this is the only book or this is one of three books in the house and the family's moving a lot or this or the child's moving back and forth between caregivers, does it have staying power? And can I oh, look, the little mouse is. So we've, you know, we have these great conversations every year. Oh, yeah. But the mouse keeps coming back. There's that whole other narrative. Oh, and then there's this piece. And then. Oh, I didn't catch that the first time. Oh, great. Okay. So they're gonna come back for that, for that part. And how would this engage a sibling? Could an older sibling read this one? Would it hold their attention? So we're really, we've got like, we're looking for the bang for the buck with this book and knowing that there, some kids are going to have 4,000 books in their house and some may have four. And we want that book to lift to the top in either situation. Right. And that's, that's really. So in the conversations that we have every year, really, I always leave thinking, you know, I'll be, I'll just sort of casually mention the person next to me. Well, this is, this clearly wouldn't work because. Well, yes, it would work because. So we have these really rich conversations and discussions about. Well, I don't see that, do you? And it must be really great for you all afterwards to synthesize all of our different perspectives and what we want to see in the books.

Kathryn Landon-Malone:

I also like to read through that book as a parent. I remember sometimes my children would pull a book off the shelf and want it to be read and I'd be like, oh, that one again. So I want there to be that lasting excitement that I still get a tear in the eye when I read, you know, read one book or another. You know, it's like. Or get excited about reading that because I don't want parents skipping pages like maybe I did a few times when

Liza McFadden:

my guys were little.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Cassie, how do people find out about raising readers?

Cassandra Grantham:

Well, we have a great website, raisingreaders.org and we can be easily found on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. We do all of those. And as both Katharines were mentioning, a huge sort of side piece of our work is to be able to recommend other books for topics or different discussions that parents want to have with their children. And our Pinterest boards actually are full of different suggestions of every way, shape and sort. We're dealing with death in our family right now. And that's a huge, huge topic to be trying to discuss with a three year old and trying to sort of figure that out. And so I actually, I was actually on Amazon, this is funny the other day, and I'm searching, right? I'm thinking, why am I doing this? I should be using my own program. So I went to, so I went to the Raising Reader site, did my search, I went to Pinterest and Pinterest does have a little bit more now because we're able to keep that a little more up to date sometimes than the website. But I got four great choices and was able to order a couple of them. So I think those are a couple of ways that folks can connect with us. You can also connect through your doctor's office. I mean, if you want to know if your doctor participates or just give them a call. Every single site essentially in Maine participates in our program. So we've never had anybody drop out. We've only had people join. And when offices merge or close or whatnot, we're aware of that. And we make sure to bring the new providers in however we can. We also connect with midwifery programs and any other birth centers, standalone birth centers that are in the state. But if for some reason when you deliver a child, if you know any of our listeners happen to be pregnant or trying to have children soon or adopting, you can actually receive Raising Readers books wherever you are. So if you actually adopt a child, we connect with our, with the local, most of the local adoption services. But if for some reason that doesn't happen for you, you can always contact us through the Raising Readers website. And we'd be happy to get you out a kit and, or if you deliver it at home and for some reason your midwife doesn't have a tote bag on hand, you can always let us know. We're happy to send that out to families. So there's a lot of ways to connect with us. We also have our emails, obviously on our website, and we're happy to answer questions. We get them all the time from childcare providers and provide clinical providers themselves, etc. So please connect with us. We love to hear from families.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, thank you all for coming in today. We've been speaking with Cassandra Grantham. I call you Cassandra, but of course

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Cassie is the way I've always known you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So Cassie Grantham, Katherine Anderson and also Catherine Landon Malone. I appreciate your all participating and getting

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

the words out, literally the words out

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

to the children of the state of Maine. And thanks for all the work that you're doing with Raising Readers.

Catherine Anderson:

Thank you.

Kathryn Landon-Malone:

Thanks.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 136, Family Literacy. Our guests have included Liza McFadden, Becky Dyer, Catherine Landon Malone and Katherine Anderson. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit drlisabelisle.com the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our E. News newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. Follow me on Instagram. As bountiful one we'd love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Family Literacy show. Thank you for allowing me to be

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

a part of your day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

May you have a bountiful life.