January 2022 InTouch Magazine

Member Profile

Strong Start

Oliver did not like to read. His parents would read to him every night, but he had no interest in words. “When we received his report card in Junior Kindergarten it said he recognized only 4 letters and 2 numbers. We were worried,” said Melanie, Oliver’s mom.

When Oliver’s parents received a permission letter for Oliver to participate Strong Start’s Letter, Sounds and Words program at his school they were not sure if it would work. “I looked it up online. I saw all of the assessment results and thought, there is no way it’s going to make that much of a difference, but it did,” said Melanie.

Eight weeks after Oliver started the program, there was a breakthrough moment. The family was driving and Oliver saw a sign that said Bell Street. “That’s a B,” he shouted! His parents were amazed!

Strong Start is a registered Canadian charity that believes in changing children’s lives by helping them learn to read. One in four Canadian children who enter Grade 1 are significantly behind their peers and are poorly prepared to learn. The result is that children who are disadvantaged at school entry tend to fall further and further behind their peers as they progress through the school years (National Strategy for Early Learning Summary Report, 2009, p. 5). Letters, Sounds and Words catches children early before they become discouraged and disengage in school.

When we invest in children’s literacy we ultimately increase adult literacy levels. Increased levels of literacy in adults results in economic benefits, such as greater high school graduation rates, lower poverty rates, decreased health care costs and decreased involvement with the criminal justice system.

As for Oliver, his reading skills continue to get better and better. He reads words now and loves books. His confidence and self esteem have grown and he sees himself as a successful reader and that has made all the difference.