Conference highlights pre-education needs of black community

The number one challenge facing all families is that of preparing children for their future. A recent Yarmouth conference sought to provide many of the region's parents with a new set of tools to give their children the best possible start from birth to primary.

"Getting children ready to read comes from zero to six," says Digby County Family Resource Centre executive director, Darlene Lawrence. "Research has shown that children who do not have the foundation are going to have difficulties once they hit primary - and those difficulties will follow them unless there's intervention."

The Oct. 11 and 12 conference was held for parents of African-Nova Scotian children in Yarmouth, Shelburne and Digby. Over 40 people participated in workshops and lectures, jointly funded by the Digby County Family Resource Centre and The Black Educators Association.

Lawrence said parents used to think the responsibility for teaching children to read and write rested squarely on the shoulders of teachers. But with increasing class sizes and greater demands on teachers, the time just doesn't exist anymore.

"It affects all children," said Lawrence. "But its more severe in terms of black children not having fundamental skills when they go to primary in terms of letter recognition, shape recognition, and knowing that you read a book from left to right."

BEA Regional Educator Brenda Clarke performed as host throughout the sessions. She said a great deal of thought went into planning the conference and its content.

She said the black community is excluded from many of the services provided for through a $50 million federal fund aimed at provincial children's programs. She said what her group is seeing is that black parents and children are not accessing those services and it's critical they gain that knowledge.

"We wanted parents to come away with tangible skills and tools they could easily use at home with their children," said Clarke. "I think that was accomplished."

Clarke said one of the tools parents learned, as part of a session on early language development with speech pathologist Marquise Sopher, was to use more detail when engaging children with an everyday item like a toy or storybook.

"Instead of saying it's a truck, for example, parents say it's a red truck, it has four wheels," said Clarke. "Parents did hands-on activities in their workgroups to just be able to broaden the discussion they have with their children over a simple toy."

Sopher also presented parents with the idea that language encompasses more than just written and spoken words, and Ken Fells provided parents with a look at education and integrating Afri-centric materials into learning, along with discussing the role of rhyme and rhythm in traditional learning of black children.

"We also looked at where children are in elementary and junior high school, and having problems with reading and comprehension," said Clarke. "In junior high, children are not taught how to read, they're expected to know how to read. If they have issues around literacy, then those children continue to fall further and further behind until eventually they're pushed out of the system. They either leave willingly or they graduate - and don't have the ability to read the diploma that they've received."

Clarke said feedback from the weekend was very good, with many of the participants wishing the conference had lasted longer. She said funding restricted the time and number of participants they could accommodate, but both she and Lawrence agreed the conference was successful in its goals.

"This is only the beginning, more needs to be done," said Lawrence. "We planted the seed, but we need to do the follow-up."