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Everyone’s a winner when students read at Shriners Hospital

GREGG TRUSTY

“It’s like living in ‘Childrenville.’”

Holli Duggan, an LSUS graduate student in library science, put into words her deep feelings for the ex-perience she is getting when she reads to children at Shreveport Shriners Hospital. “It’s nice to deal one-on-one – or even one-on-three – with the children,” she said.

When Duggan and her classmates in Dr. Martha Mangin’s 400- and 600-level library materials for children classes go to Shriners to read, it’s tough to tell who’s more excited, the students or the children. There is no question, however, that everyone is a winner.

The collaborative project be-tween the first Shriners Hospital and the LSUS College of Education and Human Development that brings readers and books to hospitalized children started in 1999. Mangin, an associate professor of education, said the program was designed to give her students valuable field ex-perience, something students had not received in previous courses.

“Students need to go out to chil-dren to see how they relate to books and reading,” Mangin said. “They need to learn to be effective readers.”
“I was scared to death (the first time I read),” said Carrie Abbitt, a junior elementary education major.

Chrissie Veuleman, another junior elementary education major, was also scared the first time she read, but “got lost in the book and forgot about the fear. Actually interacting with the children is really great.”

Group interaction is especially intriguing to Wyolanda Finley, a graduate student in library science. “We read the younger children a story and older children listen, too,” she said. “The next time, an older child will read the story.”

When the program started, it in-volved only reading in the family area of the hospital. Mangin said there was such positive feedback from parents and the children themselves that the program began expanding.

“One of our students was read-ing to a child who didn’t want to leave and go to the cast room,” Mangin recalled. “Our student went to the cast room with the child and continued reading. The child’s doctor told us later that continuing reading to the child helped keep the child calm.”

LSUS students now also read to children in their beds and some students read in Spanish to enhance the experience for children whose first language is Spanish. Mangin said it helps if the student speaks and/or understands Spanish, but just being able to read Spanish is still effective.

In 2000, Mangin started a program to allow students to buy low-cost books to use in their classrooms when they became teachers. Mangin said students ordered $3,000 in books the first two months of the program – September and October. The book company awards points for each book purchased, and the class uses the points to get free books for Shriners Hospital children.

Each time a student reads, the child can pick one of the free books to keep. Sometimes, Mangin said, the students read those books to the children.

“They get so excited when we give them a book,” Veuleman said. “You’d think we gave them $100.”

Mangin said she has lost count of how many students have partici-pated in the 4-year-old program and how many hours they have spent reading to children. Each student in her library materials classes makes four visits to Shriners and two visits to the Midway Elementary Professional Development School to read to children.

Dr. Gale Bridger, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, said the Shriners Hospital reading program is one of many opportunities for LSUS to have a positive impact in the community. “Through program such as this one,” she said, “we can be a re-source for the community and give back to the community.”