Our Storytime with Maceo series aims to bridge the gaps between family reading, literacy, and neurodiversity. Maceo, our family’s youngest member, has autism and a speech delay. As a family, we read to Maceo regularly to encourage his love of books and the development of his skills.
 
 

Tanya Manning-Yarde, PhD, our producer, came up with the idea to model reading Star Wars-related books to Maceo as part of our podcast and channel. We hope our platform will encourage other families, whether neurotypical or neurodiverse, to read to their children. It is not always easy, but we model reading together in order to encourage other families who are unsure how to support young readers.

 

 

After hearing about our literacy initiative, Malkia Payton-Jackson, NHSA Director of Alumni Engagement, we were invited to present at the 2021 National Head Start Association’s Family Engagement Conference to discuss how we support literacy development in our family. We discuss the significance of Head Start in our family’s education. We also talk about how Star Wars brings the family together and our love of reading.

Currently, we are using Star Wars-related books from the Little Golden Books collection because they combine text with visuals. After we finish the three trilogies, we will introduce new books.

Check out the links below to see some of our most recent episodes and keep an eye out for our latest episodes on our YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcasts.