Posted in Dalton Daily Citizen News and written by Brady Hix.
After the launch of Whitfield County Schools’ Play & Learn (PAL) program in April, which supports children under the age of 4 and their families before entering
school, prekindergarten Director Salena Weed said young, local families are seeing the need for early learning. “Post-COVID(-19) trend data has shown that we have more students who are coming to school less prepared than ever, and it’s mostly due to the lack of educational experiences with kids their own age,” Weed said. “It’s just a change and shift in the culture.” That’s why Weed helped spearhead the PAL program, which began its first sessions in April at the community centers at Edwards Park and Riverbend Park in Dalton. “We realized that we really needed to start reaching our kids before they come to school,” she said. According to school system officials, the program is part of a new
early learning initiative that was “inspired by the knowledge that 80% of brain growth occurs by age
3.” Weed said she created the program to “reach children at a critical stage of development, especially
those not enrolled in day care or early learning facilities.” “It’s really geared towards children who are up to 4 years of age who have not yet started school, and really our goal is to provide experiences for both children and their parents,” she said. “Because parents are their first educators. We also want to provide them with some modeling materials to support learning at home, and to connect our families with local resources. Since we are a very spread-out district, it’s very hard for some of our families to really access some of the resources that are located in the middle of Dalton.”
To help provide materials for the program, Weed said Play & Learn is funded through “strong community partnerships” with local organizations including the United Way of Northwest Georgia, the Dalton/Whitfield County Family Connection, Vitruvian Health’s Anna Shaw Children’s Institute, the Northwest
Georgia Regional Library System and the Early Childhood Initiative of Northwest Georgia. Weed said the Dalton/Whitfield County Family Connection has helped to provide classroom supplies, books and information for families through a Community Coalition grant from the Sandra Dunagan Deal
Center for Early Language and Literacy. “These resources included materials from The Basics, a science-based parenting initiative that supports child
development from birth to age 5,” she said. Weed said the early spring sessions exceeded expectations. “I honestly expected maybe 10 participants in each of the children groups,” she said. “But we had over 70
families sign up over a two week period of time. That shows that people are really looking for this information because they want to see their children succeed.” She said the early sessions consisted of four cohorts of families for a total of 74 participants, including 35 children and their parents or grandparents. “We were able to distribute over 200 books, and we also provided over 100 learning materials and skill-building activities,” she said. “Anything we did, they got to take home with them so that they can continue to learn outside of the sessions.”
Weed said the community partners have been “phenomenal” in attending the program sessions, passing out materials and providing resources for families. “The public library came and modeled some things that they do in the library while sharing with families some of the opportunities they have,” she said. “Families were also able to receive library cards right then and there.”
Weed said children and families in the program were recently greeted by Emily Brandt, a developmental-
behavioral pediatrician with the Anna Shaw Children’s Institute, which provides care for children with developmental delays. “Dr. Brandt modeled developmental milestones for families so that they could see what those milestones were at each level,” Weed said. “And we were able to give parents some resources if they did have any concerns, so they can get their child the appropriate services they may need before starting school.” Weed said a “major benefit”
of the program includes the opportunity for children
to play with “other kids their age.” “It kind of surprised me how many kids had not had those opportunities due to those shifts post-COVID,” she said. “Some of these kids really have not been around kids their age in a learning environment before the sessions.” Weed said another important part of the program is having a “two-gen approach.” “It’s not just about educating the kids, but the whole family,” she said. “We did a recent study in Dalton to find out why we have more children not attending day cares or early childhood programs,
and a lot of it came down to parents just making the choice to keep their child at home post-COVID. Some said it was easier because they worked from home, and some said it was because they were not quite ready to have their kids out there at a young age.” Feedback from the early sessions was “overwhelmingly positive,” said Weed. “The parents really wanted this information for their kids,” she said. “The only thing that people really suggested is to potentially extend the program longer than just four-day sessions, which is how we have been doing it. We do have some families who wanted to attend again, so they joined us during our September sessions.”
Weed said she is looking forward to seeing the program
continue throughout the year. “Looking ahead, we did
not receive a grant (from the state), but there are some
wonderful partnerships that are helping us to fund the
program and provide materials and books this year,”
she said.
According to data presented by Weed, $5,000 was
provided by the Early Childhood Initiative of Northwest
Georgia and the United Way of Northwest Georgia.
“We are continuing sessions across the district,” she
said. “We actually just began our 2- and 3-year-olds sessions at Edwards Park. This is the first time working with the younger kids, and then we will have more sessions with our older kids as well throughout the year. As longas we’ve got the funding, we will be providing materials and these sessions for families.”