About

What is REDI?

REDI stands for Research-based and Developmentally Informed. It is an early learning program for preschool children that was developed in partnership with Head Start programs in Pennsylvania.  REDI uses the Preschool PATHS® Curriculum to build student school readiness skills in the domain of social-emotional development.  It also includes curriculum components that build language skills and reading readiness, which are integrated with Preschool PATHS®.  You can download and print the REDI Language and Literacy Components.

How does REDI enrich preschool and prekindergarten programs?

The Preschool PATHS® Curriculum manual provides lesson plans that include stories, games, and activities that build children’s social-emotional skills. These include positive social skills, emotional understanding, self-control, and social problem-solving skills.  The supplemental REDI Program downloads add interactive reading lessons to build oral language skills, sound games to promote phonological awareness, and alphabet center activities to strengthen letter knowledge. Together, REDI provides 33 weeks of lesson planning and learning games that are proven to improve children’s school readiness and later school success.

What is special about the REDI lessons?

REDI lesson stories, games, and activities introduce skills in a developmentally-appropriate manner.  The early lessons focus on easier skills that provide a foundation for the more challenging skills placed later in the year.  Research has shown that providing children with learning activities that follow natural learning progressions, like in the REDI program, promotes school readiness, boosting children’s social, behavioral, and academic success during the later school years.

What have you found so far?

Compared to children in usual practice Head Start classrooms, children in REDI classrooms showed enhanced gains in:

  • Emergent literacy skills, including vocabulary growth, phonemic awareness, and letter recognition
  • Social behavior, including higher levels of positive social behavior and lower levels of aggressive behavior
  • Learning engagement, including gains in concentration and task focus

Program benefits are still evident in fifth grade, when children who received REDI continue to show:

  • Better classroom behavior
  • Less verbal aggression with peers
  • Higher levels of social competence
  • More self-directed learning

WPSU REDI Interview with Dr. Karen Bierman

How can I learn more?

Detailed information about REDI can be found in the articles listed in the Publications section of this website.