When Lisa Bennett reads to preschoolers, she is instilling a skillset that helps children be more successful in their educational efforts and in life.

“Reading should feel like a shared experience,” notes Lisa Bennett, a Play Group Facilitator with Family ACCESS Community Connections. “When I read, I like to slow down and really invite children into the story. I pause to ask what they notice in the picture and what the characters might do next. They stay more engaged and build confidence in their ideas.”

Dialogic Reading, or asking good questions, is the basis of a nationwide program called Raising A Reader, an evidence based early literacy program with an end goal to help families develop, practice and maintain routines of shared reading at home.

“In addition to our Newton Early Learning Center, Family ACCESS offers several community-based programs that help build literacy rich homes throughout the ten communities we serve,” notes Jodi Levin, MSW, M.Ed, Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) Program Coordinator. “Along with giving hundreds of books to families throughout the year, our facilitators continuously model strategies to help parents and caregivers engage children in conversation around books.”

Raising A Reader provides a rotating library of high-quality children’s literature that families can bring home each week, encouraging children and parents to develop the habit of shared reading. It is integrated into our CFCE program Community Connections, which is an EEC funded grant program at Family ACCESS, that offers parent education programs, parent/child playgroups, literacy programs and referrals to community resources. Also part of Family ACCESS, the ParentChild+ program, is an intensive home visiting service providing structured, in-home support for low to moderate income families of young children to help build strong foundations for learning and school readiness.

“During home visits, we gift families with a new book or toy each week and model for parents how to engage their child with those materials,” explains Jodi. “The idea is to help parents feel comfortable and confident as their child’s first and best teacher.”

In the classrooms at Family ACCESS, children are invited to engage with the facilitator to be part of the story telling. Lisa asks lots of questions as she reads to pull the kids in. Using dialogic reading strategies allows adults and children to have conversations about a book, turning reading into an interactive dialogue where the child leads, promoting vocabulary and language skills.

“It also helps strengthen comprehension,” adds Lisa. “Most importantly, it helps children see books as something fun and interactive rather than something they just sit and listen to.”