(NAPSA)—Read all aboutit. There are a number of practical ways parents can nurture and encourage literacy in their home and community. Here are sometips: Set aside some time—evenif it’s 15 minutes—to read with your child every day. Try to makeit the same time in the sameplace. Encourage children to read words that they see around them—on street signs, billboards andT-shirts. Find at least one story from the newspaper or a magazine to read with your child every week. Give teens articles about things that interest them—music, mov- ies, TV and computers. Set an example for your child and demonstrate the importance of reading in yourlife. Volunteer your time with literacy groups in your community. You can makea contribution by tutoring adults, reading to children or helping out with administrative tasks. Write a letter a week with your child. Encourage your child to watch captioned television programs and DVDs. Studies conducted by the National Captioning Institute (NCI) and others indicate that children and adults can improvetheir literacy skills by viewingtelevision programmingwith captions. According to the NCI, captioned television programs and entertainment create a rich learning environment by allowing students to Se Are you"crazy, ws & going’above the canopy Experts say that evidence indi- cates that repeated viewing of captioned programs can en- hancereading skills. According to academic expert Helen Hoffner, Ed.D, “Overwhelming evidence indicates that repeated viewing of captioned programs leads to reading fluency. Parents and teachers should seize every opportunity to use captioned programming to motivate and educate youngreaders.” This approach to enhancing reading comprehension has been used to create a series of DVDs that add captions to popular children’s and family films in a way that both entertains and educates. Some say that with their multisensory presentation and captivating entertainment qualities, the Follow Along DVDs have the potential to enable children to read with confidence. Each film in the lineup is available in both English and Spanish. Recent films in the series—created and produced by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment— hear the words, see the words as include favorites such as “Anastasia,” “Ferngully: The Last Rainforest” and “Garfield The images on the TVscreen. Website at www.foxhome.com. captions and experience the meaning of the words by watching the Movie.” To learn more, visit the
