RECOGNISING that children learn to read at different paces, Tanice Morrison, founder of Reading Smarties Learning Centre, set out to create a haven where lessons are tailored to each child’s unique needs, ensuring they receive the individual help required to flourish.

“Every child learns differently, and you’ll find that not everybody learns at the same pace. In the general classroom, teachers may not be aware of all these things, or they are not trained to pick up on challenges that the child may face, so these issues may be swept under the rug and stay with that child until they become adults,” said Morrison.

“Parents are always concerned that their child might be slow, or there are certain things that they are not able to do at their age, but in these cases it is necessary that these kids be provided with specialised programmes to really assist in their learning,” she told the
Jamaica Observer ahead of International Literacy Day which is being observed today under the theme, ‘Promoting multilingual education: Literacy for mutual understanding and peace’.

Located near Half-Way-Tree, Reading Smarties caters to children six years and up with learning challenges. They have a team of trained specialists in learning disabilities who offer a holistic approach to teaching where the social, emotional, ethical, and academic needs of children are integrated.

Once enrolled in the programme, students are assessed to determine their reading level, and where necessary are referred to paediatricians or psychologists for further evaluation, Morrison explained, adding that parental consultations are also done to get an idea of methods used at home to teach their child to read.

“With parents, we try to find out their approach and how they speak to the child, because you know in Jamaica we have our Jamaican dialect, and that, too, can also impact the way a child reads or how they hear something,” she said.

A trained literacy expert and educator with more than 20 years’ experience, Morrison said that teaching children how to pronounce letters and words at an early age is a critical step that, if done incorrectly, can hinder a child’s ability to read.

“You can teach a child, for example, the letters of the alphabet, and you’re teaching them the letter sound, but if you don’t teach the child the correct way of pronouncing or articulating the sound, then it really is going to be a challenge,” said Morrison.

“From sounding comes blending, and if you’re saying the sound incorrectly, it’s going to be difficult for you to blend those letters to say words,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“We often have to have the parents there to ask them, ‘Is this the way you say it?’, or ask the parent to say the word so we know if the child actually knows the word but might be pronouncing it differently because of their parent,” Morrison explained.

“It’s very intricate, and parents have to be very mindful because what you teach them cannot be easily untaught. I’ve had the experience working with kids who have been taught incorrectly, and it takes weeks to have [them] get the thing correctly,” she said.

Stressing the importance of trained literacy experts in schools, she urged the Government to invest more in educators who have one-on-one sessions.

“From my perspective, I think the Government can do more. I think the Ministry [of Education] can do more to train more teachers in this area where we can actually have more people catering to our children in need,” she said.

“The need is greater than the literacy specialists, so I think the Government can invest and pay for these programmes and try to encourage young teachers to get into training as it relates to literacy and numeracy,” she said.

According to the Jamaica Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2022: Situation of Women and Children, the level at which students aged seven to 14 are performing in numeracy and literacy is worrying.

The data revealed that 38 per cent of students have not acquired foundational reading skills, while only 50 per cent have acquired foundational numeracy skills.

Last year, 248 underperforming schools were targeted to receive support under the school improvement framework, to improve literacy rates. Additionally, the pilot for the Literacy Education Acceleration Programme was launched, involving six schools in the education ministry’s regions one and four.

Other programmes — such as the Aural, Read, Respond, Oral, Write and Creative Language-Based Learning — were also implemented to move the literacy rate upward.