Parents are aware of the importance of reading to their children.
Washington, D.C., educator David Schleper has developed an innovative program that extends classroom learning into the home by helping such parents improve the literacy skills of their children. Schleper, a literacy coordinator at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School in Washington, D.C., developed an outreach program that has improved the literacy skills of deaf children by emphasizing the impact of parents and caregivers on their children's literacy. It also promotes the principles of reading successfully with deaf children. The program targeted 75 families with children ranging in age from newborn to eight years old. In addition to specialized materials including a video featuring culturally diverse, deaf readers signing popular children's books, deaf tutors made home visits.