Shared Reading Means Shared Lives

A mother and father talk about their family's experiences as they pass on their own love of reading to their six small children, through the Shared Reading Program at Pre-College National Mission Programs, Gallaudet University.

"I read everything!" Mary Ann Shock laughs. A busy mother of six children, Shock notes that her husband often teases her about this characteristic. "I read bulletin boards. I grab flyers. I gather materials while I wait for the kids in the doctor's office. Reading is an important part of our family life."

Reading has enabled the Shocks to keep abreast of the technology for their deaf son. Four-year-old Hayden has a visual smoke alarm in the bedroom he shares with his brother, Emery, and there is a TTY on the top and bottom floors of the family's three-story town home. Hayden's reading mentor, Daniel Koo, also lent the Shocks a decoder for their television.

Perhaps because they place such high positive value on reading, Ed and Mary Ann Shock are determined to pass on the habit to their children. Thus they joined the Shared Reading Program, a home-school effort initiated through Gallaudet University's Pre-College National Mission Programs. Under the program, families of the deaf students at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School are matched with reading mentors. Parents and caregivers learn how to read to deaf children using American Sign Language. In addition, mentors demonstrate strategies to enable more effective book sharing.

The Shocks learned about the program when Hayden brought home a flyer in the fall of 1995. They were among the 18 families who volunteered to participate in the program joined during its implementation and are now in their second year. The Shocks were matched with Koo, a graduate student at Gallaudet University majoring in linguistics.

As reading mentor, Koo's role is threefold:

• to help families improve their use of sign language
• to answer questions about American Sign Language (ASL)
• to model reading strategies for families to use with their young deaf children.

Initially the Shocks joined the program to improve their signing skills and understanding of how to read to Hayden. After a few sessions with Koo, their goals expanded. Koo emphasized that the Shocks possessed strong signing skills and were demonstrating a passion for reading. As a result, they were able to create a family reading time that involved all their children.

Six-year-old Emery and two-year-old Meredith would join Hayden and their parents in family reading sessions.

As the second year of the project began, nature made this goal even more challenging. In August, the Shock triplets were born. The family of three children became a family of six children--all under six years of age. Hayden, Emery, and Meredith were joined by Madison, Logan, and Austin. Koo's workload doubled.

A Place for Everyone
With a little planning, the Shocks and Koo began to find ways to incorporate each child into their reading sessions. Meredith can often be found kneeling in front of the new babies with a book open in front of her. She signs and voices stories that she makes up based on the pictures.

Emery already likes to read on his own. He enjoys books about dinosaurs and astronauts. Hayden, who follows his brother's example, sometimes chooses the same books that his older brother has read. On the day that we visited, both boys were sitting on their father's lap reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Emery voiced the story while Hayden signed it.

This type of family interaction has become one of the primary benefits of the Shared Reading Program for the Shocks. Ed and Mary Ann Shock want to make the children's books that fill their living room accessible to all their children. Because of the Shared Reading Program, Hayden's brother and sister are also able to enjoy books that Koo reads to them from a visual perspective.

Family reading extends beyond Koo's weekly visits. The Shocks use many opportunities to stimulate their children to read--and to read for meaning. Recently the tooth fairy visited Emery, and left him $2.00 in exchange for his first tooth. Accompanying the money was a note that read:

Dear Emery,
Way to go! Remember to keep brushing your teeth.

Love,
The Tooth Fairy
P.S. Buenos Dias

Like many good parents, Mary Ann and Ed Shock couldn't permit a note to be left for only one of their children. So while Mary Ann Shock authored the tooth fairy note, Ed wrote a note for Hayden as well. Hayden's note read:

Dear Hayden,
Grandma D comes here to visit us on Saturday. I know you can't wait to kiss Grandma all over. Will you please draw me a picture? I like cars, trucks, and airplanes. Remember, you, me, and Emery are going to see the monster truck show on Sunday.

I love you.
Daddy

Thus note writing was used by the Shocks to reinforce their own family values, i.e. brush your teeth every day and be nice to your grandmother. They also used the writing to reinforce what the boys are learning in school. Emery is learning Spanish at an after school club and Hayden's teacher recently suggested that the parents use writing and drawing at home to build Hayden's confidence for writing and drawing in school.

A Survey of Benefits In between holding babies, eating sandwiches, and munching M & Ms, the Shocks and Koo discussed the benefits of reading stories to children. Koo pointed out that sharing books means sharing interests among classmates and family members.

As our lunch discussion ended, the Shocks affirmed that they'd seen some of the behaviors and learning strategies mentioned by Koo in their own household. For example, their children would:

• choose a favorite story and ask for it to be read over and over again.
• role-play stories that they had read with the family.
• pick out stories that they have seen an older sibling read in order to share a reading experience with that sibling.
• scribble on a page and ask, "Are any of these letters?"
• scribble on a page and proclaim, "It's a 'T.'"
• fingerspell and print letters and numbers.
• fingerspell and print "nonsense words" in an effort to recall words that they had seen in stories.
• recognize common words, such as their own names, in print.
• use print in ways they've seen others use it, i.e. taking an order in a restaurant, making a shopping list.
• point to print and ask their parents, "What does this say?" or "Read this to me."
• scribble, scratch, and draw on paper--just for the fun of it.

Thanks partly to a project initiated in the school, and thanks partly to their own energy and devotion, the Shocks have extended reading into a true family activity. Their children, hearing and deaf, beginning schoolers, toddler, and babies, have begun to explore the joys of print. Together with their parents, they are laying a foundation that they will share for a lifetime.

Twelve Tips for Reading to Your Deaf Child Choose books both you and your child like. Make sure that your child can see your face, your signs, and the print at the same time. Don't be limited by the words; expand on the book's ideas. Talk about the story with your child as you read. Ask your child questions; connect ideas from the story with your experiences. Be dramatic. Play with the signs; exaggerate slightly your facial expression to show different characters. Vary where you make the signs. Sometimes sign on the page; sometimes on your child's body; sometimes in the usual signing place. If you don't know some signs, don't panic. Use gestures; point to the pictures; act out the story. Keep your child's attention with a gentle tap or nudge. Let your child guide you through the story. Very young children can turn the pages while you briefly describe the pictures. Act out the story after you have read it. Read the story over and over if your child asks. Have fun! Reading together is a positive experience! -- by David Schleper Bookmarks with these tips are available free from the Shared Reading Project, at the Pre-College National Mission Programs at Gallaudet University, Kendall Demonstration Elementary School, 800 Florida Ave. NE, Washington, DC: 202-651-5051 Voice; 202-651-5052 TTD; 1-202-651-5054 Fax