Participants: Ruth Koffler

Program: Union-Snyder Foster Grandparent Program, Pennsylvania
Service: Foster Grandparents assist in classrooms and programs for children with special and exceptional needs.

Interview with Ruth Koffler, December, 2000

TOPICS:

INTRODUCTION

1. INTRODUCTION:

RUTH KOFFLER: My name is Ruth Koffler. I moved here in 1982 from New York City. I was younger; and I had time on my hands; and I noticed some of the women in the building were foster grandparents. I am considered a low vision person so reading is very difficult for me. And so what the children do, they know the book so well and the story so well; and so we sit together and they tell me the stories. And they turn the pages like they're reading to me. They even take their finger and pretend they are reading every word and they make it up. It's entirely different from what the book says but they are reading to me and they think they are doing a wonderful job

EMILY MILLER: How old are the children?

RUTH KOFFLER: Four and Five. Some are gonna be four. We are taking them in a little younger.

EMILY MILLER: How about with program materials--are those things difficult for you to read?

RUTH KOFFLER: I have a special reading glass at home but I wouldn’t bring it in because it’s difficult. I read with one eye. I don’t want the kids to realize that I am that disabled. that’s part of my problem maybe. Because they don't see me as that. I am the grandma that has to be read to. So, they read to me.

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