CLEVELAND — Every summer, parents have the fear of "brain drain." That’s when your kids are out of school and lose about two months of reading. But this year, the fear is it could be even worse since kids have been out of the physical classroom since March due to COVID-19.
Amanda Lowe, owner and director of Stretch & Catch Reading Center says her program can help kids get back on track.
“We combine reading and spelling, and show children how you can look at words differently," Lowe said. "We also use a tactile approach with it, so we're stretching our sounds and we're catching them in order to read them. So it's kind of a whole different way of looking at how reading works, and you know for a lot of kids that's all they needed.”
The program is tailored specifically for your child. They do have actual learning centers, but because of coronavirus concerns everything is being done online right now. It all starts with an evaluation on Zoom.
“I need to listen to them read, and so usually I can tell where their issue is just by listening to a kid read. And from there we can design that program and they'll be one-on-one with a teacher, which is very different than a classroom teacher. You know a classroom teacher has over 25 kids sometimes in classrooms so they can't design a program just for your child, where we can design it to exactly what your child needs.”
The goal of Stretch & Catch is for students to move up one reading level, every five sessions. They have programs for pre-schoolers, through 7th grade.
You can read more about Stretch & Catch HERE.