New Reading Success Program for Young Children

February 2004 – This is a story about two sisters and a CD-ROM. It is also a story about two lifelong educators who have used their more than 100 years of combined experience to demonstrate how to teach any child, even the most disadvantaged, to read.

Today, Sister Sandra Smithson, 78, and her older sister and noted educator Mary Craighead, 88, are launching READING SUCCESS, a comprehensive reading curriculum now available to consumers, teachers and school districts nationwide.

“Why should children wait until school to learn to read?” asked author Mary Craighead. “Regardless of background or verbal skill, READING SUCCESS meets children exactly where they are and takes them forward, helping to lay a foundation for lifelong reading.” Craighead has spent more than 60 years in education, including helping to launch the national Head Start program and the popular public television program Sesame Street.

The READING SUCCESS curriculum is designed for children 4 to 7 years old, but also works for older children who have had trouble learning to read through traditional methods or younger children who show an early interest in reading. According to Craighead, READING SUCCESS is unlike any other reading program because it uses “non-segmented phonics.” Instead of requiring children to sound out each letter in a word (the segmented phonics approach), READING SUCCESS focuses on vowel sounds as the controlling agents in each word.

“READING SUCCESS is a program I would recommend, and have recommended often,” said Kathryn Boehm, an educator with more than 15 years of experience and a Project Reflect volunteer. “If a child is struggling to read, this program will teach the child to read, regardless of age. Not only have I seen troubled students transformed by the program, but students who were already way ahead of their classmates flew ahead even further using the software.”

“Mayor Mary,” a cartoon character based on Craighead, welcomes each child to the CD-ROM’s fictional Itty Bitty City and takes them through a series of lessons that focus on language development and pre-reading skills, such as identifying objects and colors, hearing rhyming sounds, expanding vocabulary and using correct grammar. The CD-ROM also provides constant reinforcement of cumulative skills to help children create a complete and solid foundation for reading.

The READING SUCCESS package, published by Smithson-Berry Publications, teaches children to read by covering the four critical categories of learning – language development, auditory perception, visual discrimination and visual motor skills. The child masters each skill before advancing to the next lesson. READING SUCCESS also meets the requirements for English Language Learners (ELL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) because it teaches basic language acquisition skills throughout the program.

The READING SUCCESS package includes:

• An interactive CD-ROM, including 360 reading activities, 72 lesson sets, 50 first readers and 26 letter songs, as well as printable books, poems and award certificates. Included with the CD-ROM is a 20-page User Guide, which summarizes the teaching methods used in READING SUCCESS and describes further exercises children can do to improve their reading skills;
• An instructor’s manual for use by teachers and/or homeschoolers and parents; and,
• A set of eight student workbooks designed to build skills in auditory perception and visual motor skills.

“Our pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children used the software last year for the first time,” said Laura Clark, principal of Sacred Heart School in Southaven, Miss. “They returned to school this year asking about when they would get to use it again. When young children retain memories of a learning experience over the summer, it is a good indication that the program had a positive, lasting effect.”

Smithson-Berry is selling the CD-ROM and User Guide at a special introductory discount cost of $45 until July 31, 2004. The regular cost for the CD-ROM and User Guide is $94. The products can be purchased at the company’s Web site, www.smithson-berry.org, or by calling (615) 460-7842 or toll free (877) Read-Well. The products may be purchased as a full package or as separate elements. Prices are different for educational institutions. Contact Project Reflect for further information.

Revenues from all sales of READING SUCCESS fund educational programs for children at risk of failing school.

A non-profit organization established in 1993, Project Reflect was founded by Sister Sandra Smithson, OSF, educator, author and advocate, to improve the quality of life for individuals in poor and minority communities. READING SUCCESS is a product of Smithson-Berry Publications, the publishing arm of Project Reflect. For more information, visit www.smithson-berry.org