Osceola News-Gazette - Letters to the Editor

This letter first appeared in the Osceola News Gazette.To the Editor: Reading is a critical skill at the heart of all formal education. Children have to be able to read in order to learn. Certainly, a child's reading skills are important to their success in school and in work. Children who enter school with these skills have an advantage, one that carries with them throughout their school years.In addition, reading can be a fun and imaginative activity for children and can open doors to all kinds of new worlds.That's why Osceola County is a funding partner for Osceola Reads, which launched last month.Osceola Reads uses the Footsteps2Brilliance curriculum to ensure children have the tools necessary to learn to read. This new five-year reading initiative aims to increase the literacy rate of children countywide and seeks to reach young minds before they start kindergarten, and will continue to develop with them.Experts tell us that reaching our children at the pre-K level is critical.The company has won numerous awards for using game-based methodology to engage young students and to inspire a love of learning. A Mobile Technology Platform allows comprehensive literacy apps to be accessed online or offline from any mobile device or traditional computer. The interactive app digitally links home, school, and the community.Every child in Osceola County will have access to this tool. The comprehensive Footsteps2Brilliance curriculum contains more than 1,000 interactive books, songs, and games that can be read in either English or Spanish.And it works. Parents who spend just 15 minutes a day using Footsteps2Brilliance with their children see immediate gains in vocabulary and critical thinking. Within 30 days, users have shown measurable results in vocabulary acquisition, critical thinking, and comprehension.A third party study showed that students who used Footsteps2Brilliance gained almost an entire year's worth of academic progress on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test in just 1 month.This is a collaborative program. In Osceola, the Board of County Commissioners, the School District, the Education Foundation and the cities of Kissimmee and St. Cloud all partnered on the project.If you have children who would benefit, I would encourage you to sign up at www.OsceolaReads.com. The mobile app can be downloaded through the iTunes App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore.I'm sure we'll meet our goal of giving local children the tools necessary to enter the classroom and become lifelong learners.

Michael HarfordDistrict 1 County Commissioner