Smart Start Georgia serves as the home of the Southeast Regional Get Ready to Read! Program. The center provides and enhances training, screening, and instructional capabilities of early childhood education for child care professionals and parents in the state of Georgia. In conjunction with the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), the Southeast Regional GRTR! center plans to introduce the Get Ready to Read! Program in selected other states.

For over 25 years, NCLD has provided programs and services to increase opportunities for individuals with learning disabilities to succeed in school, work, and life.  NCLD focuses on early literacy because up to 80% of the people with learning disabilities struggle with reading.

Get Ready to Read! (GRTR!) is an early literacy program designed to help early education and child care professionals, parents, and other caregivers, ensure  young children are equipped with the fundamental skills necessary for learning to read.  The goal of Get Ready to Read! is to screen 4 year old children for pre-reading skills before they enter kindergarten, and based on the results of the screening, develop activities to strengthen their skills and ensure their reading success.  The GRTR! Program consists of a screening tool, a 20 item research based series of questions designed to gauge a child’s grasp of pre-reading skills, and skill building activities.

Get Ready to Read! was developed in 2001 in response to research findings indicating that early screening and intervention are key to promoting reading success, addressing reading difficulties, and avoiding many of the academic and emotional problems that go along with them.  The program brings research-based, easy-to-use information, and instructional resources to early childhood educators, child care professionals and parents.  The screening tool was developed by leading researchers in the field of early literacy, Grover J. Whitehurst, Ph.D. and Christopher Lonigan, Ph.D.

With a primary focus on the Metropolitan Atlanta region, GRTR! will cater to nearly half of Georgia’s 4 year old population.  The program’s secondary focus in on early education and childcare programs throughout the state.

In addition, GRTR!  works in conjunction with key partners such as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Spark Initiative.

For more information on the GRTR! Program, visit http://www.getreadytoread.org/