Ohio State program helps high-risk children get kindergarten ready

Jessica Klein
Wed, 08 Jan 2020 03:14:38 +0000
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Ohio State is helping children transition into kindergarten through a summer program. Credit: Courtesy of Kari Welch

Since 2016, Ohio State has helped children transition from pre-K to kindergarten through a four-week summer learning program, and six months after the 2019 program, students and parents showed improvement in academics and communication.

Summer Success is a program geared toward children who have little to no experience in an early childhood setting, designed to help them gain the skills and support they need to start kindergarten in the fall. The children build their language, literacy, mathematics, social-emotional and motor skills Monday through Friday for four weeks in classrooms of 12-15 students with four teachers, Ruri Famelia, research coordinator for Summer Success, said.

Summer Success is not a summer camp — it is a summer learning program that mimics the kindergarten setting, Famelia said.

“We help children learn how to be in a structured environment with other children while introducing them to the routine they will follow in kindergarten every day,” she said

Children who are enrolled in the program tend to come from high-risk backgrounds and may be experiencing poverty or some sort of trauma, such as domestic abuse, homelessness or moving schools, Kari Welch, Summer Success program coordinator, said.

Welch said one child who went through the program this summer was an immigrant whose second language is English. The child had never been through an American school system, and Summer Success helped him get comfortable in that setting.

Students get assessed before and after the program, and Welch said that after the summer and talking with the child’s parents, they decided he needed one more year of pre-K to continue the growth of his social skills.

“He was never able to practice his English skills in an actual conversation with other American children,” Welch said. “We thought one more year of pre-kindergarten would help fine-tune his social skills and make him kindergarten ready.”

The program not only aids students in their academic and social growth, but also helps parents, Famelia said.

“Some parents just don’t know how to communicate with their child’s teachers,” Famelia said. “So we provide time for parents if they have questions and need help as well.”

One mother of a child who participated in the program this past summer for the second time saw her daughter’s improvement, and in turn, felt more comfortable approaching teachers, Welch said.

“She’s doing better than she had been, and Mom now has the comfort of coming over and looking for support,” Welch said, “She has a space where she feels safe to come and then feels empowered to go talk to the teachers.”

Welch said she has goals to continue the expansion of Summer Success and wants to reach out to more areas in the community that may need help from the program.