Maya Payne Smart

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Amanda Evans

A close-up of Maya Payne Smart

Maya Payne Smart

media release: Presented by Madison Public Library in partnership with Madison Public Library Foundation, the Wisconsin Book festival will feature Maya Payne Smart as a presenter as she reveals insights from her book such as:  

• Why caregivers’ nurturing, supportive, back-and-forth verbal engagement in a children’s first years stimulates brain function and shapes brain function with lifelong impact
• The TALK Method to help even the quietest parents make nourishing conversation with babies and young children
• Critical milestones along the path to literacy from birth through early elementary school so parents can monitor kids’ progress and help them get to their next level
• The top six parent levers for literacy—conversation, book reading, teaching, connecting, budgeting, and advocacy—and how to use them
• How to spur key reading leaps, including boosting oral vocabulary, discerning sounds in words, grasping the form and function of print, mastering letters, mapping print to sound, and making meaning of it all
• I SPY variations to suit babies, toddlers, and preschoolers’ literacy learning
• How to use physical objects and gestures to enhance lessons about sounds
• How to talk about letters

Maya Payne Smart is a writer, parent educator, and literacy advocate who has served on the boards of numerous library and literacy organizations. She and her family live in Milwaukee, where she serves as affiliated faculty in educational policy and leadership in the College of Education at Marquette University. Her website, MayaSmart.com, provides tips and tools for parents to nurture, teach, and advocate for kids on the road to reading.

READING FOR OUR LIVES is a timely, necessary tool as U.S. literacy hits critical levels. Currently, there are 43 million Americans between ages 16 to 65 who can’t read well enough to complete a job application, follow a bus schedule, understand a rental agreement or parse choices at the ballot box. Low-income kids and children of color suffer the most. READING FOR OUR LIVES offers parents from all walks a life hope and a lifeline. Smart encourages and motivates caregivers to use whatever they have of their most valuable resource – time – to set their children on the road for success.