Weakley County Schools celebrates young learning

WEAKLEY COUNTY, Tenn. — A local school system is focusing all week long on young learners, and it’s also introducing its new campaign.

Weakley County Schools is just in the middle of its Week of the Young Child.

Pre-K family school consultant Karen Fowler says it is a week to spotlight children, their families, and those who provide services for them.

“We’ve been doing something different everyday. We’ve had a different focus everyday. Monday was Music Monday, so we had some musicians come to some of our classrooms. Tasty Tuesday, we actually did some cooking experiments with children. And today has been Work Together Wednesday, and we’ve been working together just to accomplish a task or goal,” Fowler said.

To go along with Week of the Young Child, Weakley County Schools is also introducing its new “PAUSE” campaign starting this week.

“The PAUSE campaign came about by a trend we were noticing, especially with our pre-K students. Four years ago our speech therapist came to me and they were like, ‘Well we’ve got 11 children in our county who are non-verbal. Right now we’re sitting at 30. So that’s concerning o us,'” said Deborah Perkins, the Director of Special Education at Weakley County Schools.

Perkins says through the year-long campaign, parents will be offered resources to make them aware of things that could help in being communicative.

One big factor is refraining from always handing your child a phone to keep them busy, but there are others as well.

“Nursery rhymes are great because they’re fun, and you hear rhyming words in that. One of the best things that you can do as a parent is talk with your child. When you’re together at a grocery store, talk about the things that you see. As you’re shopping, let your child look for something that starts with a letter ‘A’ or look for something that starts with the letter ‘B.’ When you pick your child up from school, ask them to tell you about their day,” Fowler said.

Coming next for Weakley County Schools this week is Artsy Thursday and Family Friday.

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