Early Age & School Age Literacy Programs

This programs were created to advance the cognitive, social, emotional and cultural abilities of young child with special emphasis on literacy and numerical skill. We operate them in Jerusalem and Lod in partnership with the Municipal Education Departments.

Programs description:

Language fills a large number of functions. Children express their wishes, needs, feelings and experiences through language and also use it to convey information and communicate with others. Words generate a spectrum of ideas and they play a major role in the cognitive processes.

I. Preschool Children Program:

The preschool and kindergarten age is a critical time in the development of a child. At this stage of life, the child needs a complex environment which provides a wide range of opportunities and experiences in order to realize his/her potential. Appropriate and significant intervention will help promote healthy development in a child. This program was created to advance the cognitive, social, emotional and cultural abilities of the child with special emphasis on literacy and numeracy skills.

Children exposed to literacy rich environments in the classroom or within other group situations develop curiosity and motivation to learn to write. They internalize cultural and social values represented and communicated by language. Playing math games can also prepare a child for arithmetic problems in class and prevent unnecessary failures.

II. School Age Children Program:

Some of the challenges that our children face stem from inadequate language skills. Most of the children have not been sufficiently exposed to language both in oral and written form. The Literacy for school children program was created to help promote literacy skills including vocabulary and reading comprehension of narrative texts.

Dialogical reading (when parents and children read together) contributes to the acquisition of reading comprehension skills. Through exploration of content, discussion and follow up activities, children develop morphosyntactic skills, a better vocabulary, are introduced to a range of literary themes and discover the emotional riches of the literary text. Children then begin to think about the feelings they themselves experience in their own everyday lives.

Both programs involve:

• Small groups that emphasize individual needs
• Directed activity through games, artwork, and demonstrations
• Adapting the curriculum to match the level of development of the child
• Special attention to the child’s wide range of his abilities, interests and aspirations, with special attention to emotional, social and motor development
• The adaption of individual, targeted literacy study programs
• The adaption of individual, targeted numeracy study programs, and pre number cognitive skills
• Enhancing and expanding the relationship between parent and child
• Development of a professional team specializing in early age development

Program Goals

• Advance literacy and numeracy skills while providing a response to individual learning needs
• Reach and empower parents by providing them the tools to play and study with their children, and therefore providing the basis for a stronger parent-child relationship
• Create individual learning programs tailored to the child’s individual development, based on observation and testing of literacy and numeracy levels
• Build an infrastructure for the implementation of the literacy program in the city or town
• Promote full social integration of the child in the classroom
• Reinforce the child’s self-image so that he realizes his full potential
• Close the educational gap between under-privileged children and their peers
• Promote reading, writing, vocabulary and comprehension skills
• Promote morpho-syntactic development
• Offer individual reinforcement where necessary
• Prevent future educational gaps

The programs has proven to be significant in closing educational gaps and promoting the participation of the children in the classroom. The programs are performed in full cooperation with the school and its staff members.