by Carolyn Jaynes
Carolyn Jaynes is a Senior Learning Designer at LeapFrog with a PhD in Educational Psychology from Michigan State University. She is part of a team of learning experts who create innovative, immersive experiences that keep kids challenged and inspired.
Countless studies show that achievement in kindergarten is a key to predicting later academic success. Unfortunately, many kindergarten teachers report that nearly half of their students arrive underprepared. Helping children develop reading skills at an early age builds confidence and creates a strong foundation for future learning. LeapFrog has been helping children learn to read for more than 16 years and reading has always been at the core of our learning promise. We’re thrilled to partner with Jumpstart to promote the importance of reading in support of their mission to help children in low-income neighborhoods enter kindergarten ready to succeed.
As several studies suggest, reading achievement is directly linked to time spent reading and the amount of text read. Children who get an early jumpstart on reading are more likely to experience a love of learning throughout their lives, leading to a broader vocabulary and deeper knowledge about the world around them.
Further research has underscored that the type of reading matters. That is, simply reading more is not enough. Researchers have found self-motivated, active reading has the greatest potential to contribute to reading achievement. Active readers employ a range of comprehension strategies and skills that children experiencing reading difficulties often fail to acquire and use. Asking children questions that prompt them to practice proven comprehension strategies, such as making predictions and drawing inferences has been linked to reading improvement.
LeapFrog’s Tag Reading System helps kids build reading skills in a fun and dynamic way. With Tag’s cutting-edge technology, words talk, pictures come to life and stories live out loud, engaging children to make reading a rich, fulfilling experience. Tag allows children to learn at their own pace, building confidence along the way. The Tag library of 60+ adventures include award-winning books, maps and more that help build the fundamentals for reading, writing, geography and science.
Through LeapFrog’s partnership with Jumpstart, we’re promoting the importance of literacy by donating Tag books to Jumpstart classrooms nationwide. For every like of the Tag tab on our Facebook page, we will donate $5 in books to Jumpstart.
We know that a wide variety of skills from following directions, to completing patterns, to recognizing basic shapes, are important as children begin school. The breadth and depth of the Tag library will help Jumpstart children build the skills they need to prepare for school success in a fun, interactive way.
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