Program Allows Deployed Parents to Read to Their Kids

The Family Literacy Foundation, a non-profit organization that seeks to foster strong relationships between children and parents through reading, is looking for National Guard units abroad and at home to try out its United Through Reading program.

As a result, communicating via audio tapes may soon be a thing of the past for deployed Guardsmen and their families.

"Reading is the single strongest indicator of a child's success in their educational life," says Laura Felicetty, United Through Reading program manager. "Children that are read aloud to from the time they're born until they're age 3 have three times the vocabulary than that of a child that's not read aloud to during those years."

United Through Reading gives deployed soldiers the tools they need to record themselves reading to their children on video cassette or DVD.

The foundation has served each branch of the military since 1990, but it wasn't until after 9/11 that it realized an increased need for such a program in the Guard.

"Guard and Reserve deployments are of particular interest to us now because of them going from such a stable situation to deploying on regular excersises and now deploying a year at a time," Ms. Felicetty says.

The organization has worked with the military based on interest and in the past year or so, she says, the response from the Guard has been tremendous.

Betty Mohlenbrock, an educator and reading specialist, established the Foundation in 1989.

As a military family members, she realized the importance of continuing family traditions, especially reading aloud, even during deployment.

United Through Reading gives both child and parent time together they would not necessarily have, which lends to instilling a love of reading at a young age.

"People used to do it with audio tapes back during earlier wars but the extra benefit of this program beyond just e-mailing or sending audio tapes, is that face time," Ms. Felicetty says. "They get to spend that quality time-seeing mom or dad or brother or uncle and really feel connected with them that they're missing them."

Though United Through Reading is not a "brand new idea," it is the only formalized program that provides structured, turnkey training and execution, she says.

The foundation provides all the marketing materials for stateside volunteers so they can easily and effectively spread awareness of the program to Guard families. It also makes sure active duty volunteers have the training and equipment necessary to provide the service to military personnel overseas.

As a unit mobilizes, the foundation trains coordinators to employ the program out in the field.

They receive instructional materials, video tapes and equipment and a library of books.

Once in the field, soldiers can go to the coordinator and set up a time to sit and be taped. They can choose books from the library provided, one they brought with them or one that was sent to them from home.

During the taping, soldiers are encouraged to leave special messages and have brief conversations beyond just reading, so the tape becomes an intimate sharing time between child and parent, Ms. Felicetty says.

There is no limit to the number of times they can make a tape, and it is completely free.

The tapes or disks are immediately ready at the end of each recording, so soldiers can get them in the mail.

Word of the program is spreading. Deploying Guard units from California and Illinois have already teamed up with the foundation.

Maj. Joseph Schweickert, Illinois National Guard state family program office coordinator, says that ever since they realized the lengthy cycle of deployments was going to be a constant effort, the state has started looking into programs, such as United Through Reading, to enhance communications between soldiers and their families.

United Through Reading is currently being initiated in the 2nd Battallion, 130th Infantry, which was slated to deploy in May. Major Schweickert says they plan to promote the program statewide soon.

"The Guard side is used to short-term deployments. Now we're dealing with one-year, 15-to-18 month deployments, and we really want to maintain those family bonds, especially with the younger children," he says. "At that age, time flies by. [Children] mature so much during that year, even on video, so I think it helps. It almost gives them that interaction time."

More information can be found at www.read2kids.org.

-By Erika N. Cotton

Copyright National Guard Association of the United States Jun 2005
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