Professional Development; 30 minutes;
This series focuses on how children learn to read, why so many struggle and what we can do to help. Hosted by Henry Winkler, who has had his own struggles with reading, Reading and the Brain explores how brain scientists are working to solve the puzzle of why some children struggle to read and others don't. Startling new research shows the answer may lie in how a child's brain is wired from birth. Exciting new technologies are allowing us to learn on a child's first day of life whether or not he'll have a hard time learning to read down the line. And provocative new research from Dr. Stanley Greenspan shows us how emotional interactions between parents and babies are critical to children's later ability to comprehend what they read. We'll also meet poet Nikki Giovanni and illustrator Bryan Collier in a segment about their new book, "Rosa," a loving portrait of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. This program is an episode of "Reading Rockets # 301: Launching Young Readers," WETA's award-winning series of innovative half-hour programs about how children learn to read.