Early Childhood Literacy

Health Communication Health 634 Nicole Taylor-Murphey

Communication Program Plan Name of Program: Early Reading Sponsoring Agency: Connecticut Early Literacy, Windham County Contact Person: Nicole Taylor-Murphey Issue or Problem to Be Addressed: Illiteracy Evidence of Need: A persons academic achievement can affect their health during adulthood as well as impact their socio-economical wellbeing. Despite this fact a significant portion of the United States adult population, 93 million adults, have limited literacy.1 In Connecticut, nine percent of adults scored below basic level on literacy assessment.2 Currently, Willimantic school children scores 20 points below the state average on the Connecticut Reading Mastery test.3 In 2011, 28 percent of the adult population in Willimantic had attained less that a high school education compared to the state average of 10 percent.4 Not being able to read can limit an individuals ability to function and succeed in society. Literacy begins in early childhood and not when a child enters the school system. Therefore, parents can influence their childs literacy skills prior to the child entering a formal education setting. One way to accomplish this is to read to young children frequently. This early literacy activity will aid the child to be successful during their schools years and throughout their adult life. Program Objective(s): The purpose of this blog is to inform parents and caregivers of children birth to 5 years old of the importance of early exposure to reading and to promote daily reading activity. Communication Objective(s): 1. The health communication program seeks to initially increase the number of parents who are aware of the advantage of reading to their children and the relative ease of accomplishing this task. 2. The long-term goal of the program is to increase the number of parents who read to their children by 10 percent. Primary intended audiences:

The primary audience of this health communication program is parents of children age six months to five years old. The audience is families at all income level and educational background. Also, parents and guardians who are interested in helping their children succeed in school and later as adults but are unaware of the various ways in which to accomplish this. Secondary intended audiences: Secondary audience includes people who are planning to become parents as well as parents of younger age children and expectant mothers. New and expectant parents can acquire the necessary tools to engage in reading with their children once their children have reach the appropriate age. This will allow the program to impact children in the future and may increase the sustainability of the health message. Health care workers, teachers and day care personnel and local librarians are also secondary audience because they can directly influence a parent reading to their children and can also provide the intended activity. For example, a daycare worker or librarian can read to a child, which would accomplish the objective of having the child being read to.

Market Research Market Research Plans (include pretesting): Public service announcement encouraging parent to reads to their children and posters and brochures will be placed in local physician offices to promote early reading activity. A pre-program survey will be conducted from a random sample of parents at the local mall to assess parents knowledge of the benefits of reading and to quantify how frequently this activity is being done in the community. Activities 1. Develop and test brochure and posters 2. Place brochures and posters in the local primary care offices 3. Develop PSAs and television advertisement 4. Distribute PSAs and advertisement Messages: 1. Parents/guardians, daycare workers/babysitters, librarians and teachers: a. Early childhood exposure to reading improve their success in school b. Children with early exposure have better vocabulary and plays more attention in school c. Reading with children can be accomplish in ten to 20 minutes per day. 2. Healthcare workers

a. Reading to children daily increases their success in school. b. The American Academy of Pediatrics Read Out and Read Program provides ways in which primary care providers can give free age appropriate books to their patients. Materials to Be Developed/Adapted: 1. Brochures 2. Posters 3. Television advertisements Materials Distribution and Program Promotion Promotion/Materials Distribution Plan: 1. Television PSA- to be developed with the University of Connecticut and will be given to the local television station. 2. Brochures to be distributed to local primary care providers and participating daycare locations. 3. Posters places in local primary care provider offices Partnerships Potential Partner Organizations: 1. Generation Family Health Center and other primary care providers: will display reading with children posters in their waiting room and making brochures available to their patients. 2. Reach Out and Read Connecticut: Providing educational resources to promote reading with young children. 3. Windham school board: Assist with distribution and promotion of material. 4. University of Connecticut, Communication Department: Assist with developing the television PSA. 5. Eastern Connecticut State University, Early Childhood Education Department: Provide resource list for local families. 6. Local television station: Agrees to run PSA. Partnership Plan: Partnership will be developed in the pre-planning phase. Partners will agree to provide support to the health communication program as outline above. Evaluation Plan: Program reach and success will be evaluated one month and one year after the program has been implemented. 1. Parents will be asked a brief survey in their primary care providers offices. 2. Post program surveys will also be conducted with a convenient sample of parents at the local mall to assess program reach and effectiveness.

References: 1. Understanding Literacy. CDC website. http://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/learn/understandingliteracy.html. Published August 17, 2011. Accessed February 3, 2014. 2. Understanding Literacy. CDC website. http://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/learn/understandingliteracy.html. Published August 17, 2011. Accessed February 16, 2014. 3. Connecticut Mastery Test results. Connecticut board of education website. http://solutions1.emetric.net/cmtpublic/CMTCode/Report.aspx. Published 2013. Accessed February 9, 2014 4. Willimantic, Connecticut. City Data website. http://www.citydata.com/city/Willimantic-Connecticut.html. Published 2013. Accessed March 2, 2014