The Family Storyteller Program - Wayne County
Staff Involved: Pat Swartzlander and Donna Donald

Problem:
Children who begin school without basic language and literacy skills have difficulty learning to read. They can experience reading and learning problems throughout school. Some parents do not know how to nurture the language and literacy skills of young children. In addition, some families may not have books in the home.

Response:
Wayne County Empowerment Board provided funding for three series of the Family Storyteller in Wayne County. The Family Storyteller is a family literacy program for parents and preschool age children. Children's books, video tapes and home activity packets are used to teach 12 reading techniques and provide enriching language activities. Wayne County Extension partnered with Head Start in Seymour, Corydon and Lineville to provide the Family Storyteller program in March and April 2006. Three trained facilitators worked with 22 families (24 adults and 27 children) for the 6 weekly 1-1/2 hour meetings.

Impact:
Pre/post evaluations completed by the adults showed the following behavioral change on the reading techniques. They indicate they do this either quite a bit or most of the time. Those with the highest degree of change are listed first.

Now	Before
88%	19%	Talk about book cover with child.
100%	44%	At the end of the book ask the child what happened.
100%	50%	Help child connect things in story to real life.
100%	50%	Read slowly enough for child to ask questions and chime in.
100%	56%	Ask child to guess what happens next.
94%	50%	Have a regular time to read books with child.
100%	63%	Let the child tell story or pretend to read.
94%	63%	Help child learn new words or names for things.
100%	75%	Ask child to name or point to something on the page.
100%	81%	Let child help pick out the book to read.
100%	94%	Have child sit close to you.
94%	88%	Change your voice while reading, like soft or loud.

Families received a home activity packet at the end of each class with four language enriching activities. Evaluations indicate families completed most of the activities. Parents responded that their children asked to be read to on the average of 5 days during the past week. The parent and child looked at or read books or magazines together an average of 7 times during the past week.

Comments from the facilitators are indicative of the positive impact of the Family Storyteller.