A non-profit has been connecting separated military families through the shared bond of reading aloud in beautiful, emotional and unexpected ways since 1989.
For nearly four decades, United Through Reading’s mission has been to strengthen military families’ literacy, emotional bonds, and well-being through the power of reading together at every age, no matter the distance.
UTR’s Vice President of Programs, Samantha Hagan Lingad, knows first-hand how important reading is to keeping military kids connected to their service member parents. Both of Lingad’s parents served in the U.S. Navy. Both deployed during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, leaving Lingad and her siblings in the care of their aunt.
“My sisters and I missed them both through more deployments than I can count. On top of that, training missions, temporary duty assignments, long shifts, and even “geo-baching,” when a service member lives separate from their family, meant that it wasn’t at all infrequent that we had only one parent at home,” she said.
While the rigors of military life made it tough to maintain a routine, Lingad said reading was always a priority in their home.
“My mom read each of us bedtime stories individually every night, while my dad would gather all three of us on the couch to read us classics like the ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ and ‘Little Women,’” she said. “Small moments like these are what you miss most when your parent is gone.”
Lingad said cultivating a love of reading helps with early childhood literacy, building language skills, vocabulary development, and growth, which sets children up for educational success.
“Reading is known to have a variety of academic advantages,” she continued. “It can sharpen communication skills, improve memory, as well as improve mental health, reduce stress, and even increase your lifespan.”
Lingad noted that the National Assessment of Educational Progress has reported a sharp decline in reading scores since 2020, with the average 13-year-old declining 4 points since the previous assessment in the 2019/20 school year.
“With summer on the horizon, there’s an academic phenomenon known as “Summer Slide” when, during the break, kids lose significant knowledge in reading, which tends to have a snowball effect as they experience subsequent skill loss each year,” she said.
According to Lingad, the average student loses 17–34% of the prior year’s learning gains during summer break and the effect can be cumulative.
“At United Through Reading, we’ve invested an incredible amount of time and energy into discovering ways to get more kids to read. It’s important for parents and educators to find ways to make reading fun,” she said.
UTR’s website has activities to help parents and kids connect reading through other activities like crafts or games or just having a conversation around the topics in the book they are reading.
“We think it’s also a good idea to let your child choose books that interest them. The sky is the limit,” said Lingad.”Empowering them to choose the books they want will help them be more excited about reading.”
UTR’s website has a curated list of over 200 books it recommends. To honor military children and acknowledge the challenges they face, UTR presents its Book for the Military Child each April. This year it is partnering with children’s book author Kelly Starling Lyons to feature Ty’s Travels: All Aboard. The book was selected for its ability to inspire children to read through its engaging story, lovable characters, simple, rhythmic text and joyful, bright art.
Last year, UTR reached the milestone of connecting 3 million military family members through the bonding experience of shared storytime.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.