Assessment is a cornerstone of Strong Start® literacy programs. Children that participate in our Letters, Sounds and Words™ program and our Get Ready for School™ program are assessed before and after the program, and their gains are measured. Our summarized findings are shared on the following pages. Our year-to-year comparison of results help ensure our programs continue to make a consistent impact on young children’s early literacy development.
Our programs are based on sound educational research, techniques and strategies. Our Letters, Sounds and Words program was designed by retired elementary school principal, Lynda Silvester in consultation with other members of the education community. Our Get Ready for School program was developed through the research of Dr. Iuliana Baciu, as she completed her PhD thesis at Wilfrid Laurier University. For more information on the development of our programs, please visit our History page.
Letters, Sounds and Words
Our Letters, Sounds and Words program is designed in 4 strands to help children in Senior Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 learn the names of letters, a sound each letter represents, how to recognize words by sight, and how to build a word using the sounds of its letters. Our results consistently show that over 95% of the children enrolled are making considerable, excellent or outstanding gains in their early literacy skills.
Get Ready for School
Our Get Ready for School program focuses on helping preschool children increase their vocabulary, letter-sound knowledge and readiness for a classroom learning environment. Children are assessed by trained assessors on 6 literacy measures and on 1 behaviour measure, with results consistently showing a significant improvement on all measures from pre-test to the post-test.
Baby Connections® is a free community program that helps families develop literacy and language skills with their babies. Parents and caregivers receive coaching and carefully-selected literacy resources to use with their infant to support brain development and lay the groundwork for language and literacy development. The Baby Connections® program is delivered through various organizations and agencies throughout Waterloo Region.