SOUNS @ PES

America has a reading problem. More than 25% of American public school children in grades 2nd - 9th are completely illiterate despite the fact that many school districts spend thousands of dollars per year on each student's education.

Reading is easy if you know the sounds of English. Reading is hard if you don't.

After being introduced to SOUNS at the Rotary 6900 District Conference last year, Pelham Rotarians decided to purchase a SOUNS kit for Pelham Elementary School teachers to use to assist young students having problems learning to read.

SOUNS is a hands-on, informal, phoneme based, early literacy program for infants and toddlers. SOUNS places specifically designed and sequenced letters of our phonetic alphabet into the hands of the young child. The hand holds, plays with, and explores the letters. Since each letter is given only one label - the most common sound of that letter - the child slowly builds a base of letter-sound associations for the early stages of reading. Learning becomes incidental, natural - and fun.

In addressing the issue of literacy, SOUNS makes a powerful difference by providing the right information at the right time and in the right way. The SOUNS kit will be used for grades Pre-K - 2nd and will definitely be beneficial in the academic achievement of these students.

The SOUNS kit will be available for use for many years to come and will continue to have a positive impact on the youth of our community.