Centennial Common on Northeastern University’s Boston campus was filled with the giggles of children on Wednesday morning. Youngsters in the summer reading program Word Detectives were playing capture the flag. 

The theme of the week was “around the world” so, appropriately, the kids were separated into three groups—Team Europe, Team Asia and Africa, and Team North America, South America and Oceania. 

But before they got started, the students made sure to pet Cooper, the university’s community resource dog, who was at the common at the time. 

The children were taking part in the outdoor enrichment block of the program, designed to help boost their confidence and foster their collaborative and community-building skills.  

That’s just one of the many ways the team behind Words Detectives aims to help kids stay engaged with thoughtful activities during the summer break.   

The brainchild of Sarah Young-Hong, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, the goal of the program is to provide instruction to children entering Grades 2 to 6 who are reading below grade level during the summer months.  

This is the sixth year the Northeastern University Speech-Language and Hearing Center has hosted the program. And this year had the largest enrollment yet at 42 students. 

“The program is focused on trying to prevent that summer melt with reading skills, but also providing instruction to give these kids a boost over the summer,” Young-Hong says. 

Thursday was the last day of the program this summer. 

The program is broken up into two instructional blocks that are two hours apiece. During the first block, students focus on multisensory phonics instruction. During the second block, students focus on vocabulary and reading fluency. 

“The kids have two hours of instruction every day and then we have an hour of activity time, which is between 10:30 to 11:30 every day,” Young-Hong says. “This is their time to decompress, play games, feel community and get to know the other campers.” 

Once playtime is over, the students head in for the second block.  

“All the interventions we use are evidence-based on a huge body of research on how kids learn to read,” says Rebecca Brand, co-director of the program. 

For the fluency block, for example, instructors used the Retrieval, Automaticity, Vocabulary and Engagement—Orthography (RAVE-O) curriculum. The curriculum focuses on breaking down the structures and patterns of words to help students improve their fluency. 

Young-Hong partially attributes the growth in enrollment to the impact the pandemic has had on education, especially for younger students. 

“What we’re finding is that there is a significant need for this type of support in the summer, specifically following COVID,” she says. “There are a lot of kids that we’re seeing that are struggling because they didn’t receive the in-classroom instruction that they need in that critical development time.” 

Foundational to the Word Detectives ethos is the goal of teaching kids to look for motivation intrinsically. 

So, what does that mean? 

“We don’t have external rewards or prizes or anything to get the kids to read,” Young-Hong says. “They’re reading because they set those goals with us, and they are working toward those goals.” 

That form of encouragement is designed to help kids to “persist through challenging tasks,” says Brand. 

“We do it through a bunch of strategies that help kids feel a sense of autonomy, a sense of belonging, a sense of belonging and a sense of accomplishment,” she adds. 

Cesareo Contreras is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email him at c.contreras@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter @cesareo_r