Get Ready to Read! News from the Field 
September 2007

First grade teacher Tonya C. Pickens of Orlando, Florida, who has been teaching for twelve years, noticed that each year her students seemed to be having more and more difficulty learning to read.  In an effort to reach these children, she became certified in Search and Teach, a language-based early intervention program for children ages five to seven that targets areas of weakness in processing, memory, attention, oral and written language, reading, spelling, and math. Soon, parents of Ms. Pickens's first grade students began to approach her with concerns about younger children in the family who were also struggling to learn.  In her search for help for these parents, she found the Get Ready to Read! screening tool and activities and has been using them ever since.

Ms. Pickens encourages older and younger siblings to play the Get Ready to Read! online games together.  "My [first grade] students feel successful playing Get Ready to Read! games because some of the concepts have already been mastered by the older child, so they can help a sibling to learn," she says. "Get Ready to Read! is a wonderful confidence builder for my students. It helps parents to be proactive with their younger siblings' reading skills and allows them to monitor identification of learning problems early."

Ms. Pickens also distributes information about Get Ready to Read! in places where parents can often be found waiting with their children, such as doctors' offices and grocery lines.  She plays "waiting games" with the children and introduces them to Inky the Octopus, who they can meet in the Online Games section of the GRTR! Web site.  Ms. Pickens is doing all she can to ensure that kids get the opportunities they need to learn to read.  "My heart's desire is to create excellent readers," she says. "Part of that is early identification of learning disabilities and early intervention."