Health Literacy

An Elementary Approach to Improving Health Literacy in Mississippi

Effective health education programs should begin in early childhood and continually build on previous knowledge," says the Institute of Medicine in their report, Health Literacy - A Prescription to End Confusion published in 2004. The report also made the following statements about health literacy instruction: "With the increasing pressure on schools today to include more and more academic content, educators are justifiably reluctant to add one more content area to their already overflowing plates. However, health literacy instruction can be embedded into existing science and health education, and even mathematics and social studies, as well as literacy instruction for children and adults.

Even before the 2007 session of the Mississippi Legislature passed the Mississippi Healthy Students Act which requires 45 minutes per week of health education instruction for kindergarten through eighth grade students, The University of Southern Mississippi Institute for Disability Studies (IDS) through funding from the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation began the development of an integrated suggested teaching strategy from the Mississippi Health Curriculum Framework for kindergarten and first grade. After completion of the first curriculum books, second through fifth grade books were developed. In use by teachers in elementary schools across the state, these integrated, age-appropriate elementary suggested teaching strategy books have been distributed free to schools and districts. For more information, call 1.866.883.4474.