Preschoolers and toddlers who benefit from extra language support got a boost from a $17,505 grant extension from Literacy Partners – Menlo Park (LPMP) as they begin their lifelong educational journey.
LPMP awarded the grant to All Five, an early childhood education program based in eastern Menlo Park’s Belle Haven. The funding enables onsite speech language pathologist Ashlee Welday to continue working directly with children, ages 2-5, attending All Five, their families, and teachers. As All Five’s Founder and Executive Director Carol Thomsen explained, reading requires children to make meaning out of print. Before that, children need to know the different sounds in spoken language and be able to connect those sounds to written letters to decipher words. In other words, for children to learn to read they need to understand that language is a way to communicate, that reading is a symbolic representation of spoken language, and then move on to reading and writing. Thus, supporting an onsite speech language pathologist is pivotal to supporting young children with developmental differences on their path to learning to read.
All Five: Outside Reading!
“LPMP supports literacy for all ages within our community and is always pleased when we can identify a special initiative that can benefit from additional support,” said LPMP President Mike Goodkind. “Research shows supporting children experiencing language and literacy learning differences through early intervention enables them to do better when they reach elementary school and beyond.” The current grant, made possible by LPMP’s generous supporters, brings the local nonprofit’s support for All Five to nearly $38,000 since May 2022. All Five currently serves 70 students with 23 teachers.
Thomsen said Welday, facilitated by LPMP’s grant from generous donors, skillfully supports all six of All Five's classrooms with a focus on the following goals.
√ Identifying children who exhibit speech and/or language development learning differences.
√ Collaborating with teachers and sharing best practices to support all children, especially those with learning differences.
√ Partnering with families so they can access additional services as appropriate.
All Five’s mission is to provide high quality, socioeconomically diverse early childhood education to the community. Services are provided regardless of family income, with most students receiving whole or partial subsidies, and yet 25 percent of children’s families pay the full tuition of up to $2750 per month for the play-based, child-centered program, according to Thomsen.
More information about All Five is available here.
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For more information on Literacy Partners — Menlo Park or to learn how you can help, reach out to us at info@literacypartnersmenlopark.org.