Assistant (Children's Books/Website)

COMMUNITY PARTNER

Arizona Children's Bookalicious Foundation

ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP

Duties

1.  Working on and performing a beta test for elementary school children with the website, My Bookalicious.  

2.  Developing a survey before and after the beta test to check on the student's progress with their reading comprehension skills and the student's enjoyment of the website.  

3.  Interviewing children in developing children's books that are suitable to help them through difficult life transitions and introducing them to this technology that also has an additional benefit of interactive books with educational tools like voice activation, Spanish and English speaking books, voice activated phonic pop ups, and questions and answers at the end of books to help with children's reading comprehension skills.  

4. Developing and Aggregating partnerships with Domestic Violence Shelters, Southwest Human Development, SAARC, Various Counseling Organizations, Arizona's Children's Association, Phoenix Children's Hospital and others.  These partnerships will help develop quality content on the website through children's books and other resources that are needed to help these organizations that help children and their families move through difficult times.    

Population served

My Bookalicious' vision is to overcome the barriers to success in school for students with learning disbilities.  For a more general population, the proliferation of learning disabilities has never been more serious.  In 2007, approximately 5.8 million children are abused in the United States.  Research has shown that abused children have greater likelihood of experiencing learning difficulties than children who grow up in a healthy environment.  Studies have shown that exposure to cocaine during fetal development may lead to subtle but significant dficits later on; expecially with behaviors that are crucial to success in the classroom, such as blocking out distractions and concentrating for long periods.  

Learning Disabilities Association of America however, suggests an Individualized Education Program (IEP) is to be developed for each student with learning disabilities.  Specifically, "for some studetns who read slowly or with difficulty, a 'read-along' technique in which taped texts and materials allow learning of printed materials."  My Bookalicous serves in the multisensory teaching market and provides learning assistance to students with learning disabilities whose population comprises 4 to 6% of the total public school population according to Learning Disabilities Association of America.  However, only a small percentage estimated at between - 25% and 35% - of students with LD is being provied with assistive technology to support their instruction and learning.

My Bookalicious will help alleviate this problem through teaching children to read in interactive ways and through a multisensory method using phonics; provide online access to therapeutic and educational books to parents and children.  We will win against phonogram cards like zoo phonics, because they are boring.  Children, teachers and parents in the elementary K- 3 AZ educational system will be the population served.  Forty percent of 4th graders lack basic reading skills required for their grade level.  Reading and writing are basic communication skills that if not mastered at a young age, will impact children's subsequent performance at higher grade levels and if not addressed quickly, will eventually affect their higher education, employability, and thus future quality of life.  Arizona was voted last in the entire country for educational resources.  There will be plenty of resources on-line for teachers, parents, and students.

Community need/impact

Be a close lisason with teachers, parents and students, to improve education and mental health by working with My Bookalicious to help integrate and educate on a social level.  Monitor and present relevant data, trends, successes, exceptions etc. in education and children's mental health.   Research and present new ideas and a business case focused on My Bookalicious targets.   To assist the statewide E-3 program certification.  

I am working with organizations such as Southwest Human Development, Arizona Children's Association, and Terros to help build community support and feedback to continuously improve the resources and tools that will impact the lives of the little ones in a positive way.  The children and families in these organizations will have free access to the educational tools on "My Bookalicious."  The intern will help to build the marketing platform for children to benefit from the educational tools that My Bookalicious will provide to the children in the Arizona communities.   The intern will be assisting in developing partnerships with children's organizations to help understand these organiztions needs that will assist them in helping children move through difficult life transitions.  The intern will help with the beta testing to ensure the quality of the program that the children and these organiztions will be using to help the children of AZ and ultimately the nation.