Reach Out and Read
|
Reading is doctor recommended and Reach Out and Read gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.
The Achievement Gap Starts Early. A third of young children, and a half of children living in poverty, in the U.S. arrive at kindergarten without the skills that they need for success at school. Students who enter kindergarten with below grade level reading skills have a much higher chance of dropping out of school later in life. |
The Opportunity of a Lifetime
What happens during the first few years sets the stage for the rest of a child's life. More than 95 percent of a child's brain is formed during this critical period, and a child's experiences irreversibly affect how the brain develops - for better or worse.
Seizing the Moment
Our Reach Out and Read trained doctors have the greatest access to families with children in the early years, when it counts. More than 91 percent of children under the age of six attend routine pediatric visits at least once a year.
We encourage parents to read aloud daily to their infants, toddlers and preschoolers, as a simple and effective way of fostering nurturing, language-rich family interactions that support brain development and provide a foundation for success.
Our Unique Model
At more than 10 routine health checkups from infancy through 5 years, our Reach Out and Read-trained providers:
Cost-Effective and Scalable
Our program is integrated into our pediatric care - in fact the American Academy of Pediatrics has endorsed the model, promoting it as "an essential component of pediatric primary care."
This means that it is cost effective - $20 provides the program for one child for a year.
What happens during the first few years sets the stage for the rest of a child's life. More than 95 percent of a child's brain is formed during this critical period, and a child's experiences irreversibly affect how the brain develops - for better or worse.
Seizing the Moment
Our Reach Out and Read trained doctors have the greatest access to families with children in the early years, when it counts. More than 91 percent of children under the age of six attend routine pediatric visits at least once a year.
We encourage parents to read aloud daily to their infants, toddlers and preschoolers, as a simple and effective way of fostering nurturing, language-rich family interactions that support brain development and provide a foundation for success.
Our Unique Model
At more than 10 routine health checkups from infancy through 5 years, our Reach Out and Read-trained providers:
- Talk with parents about how important it is to read aloud and engage with their young children
- Demonstrate how best to look at books and talk about the stories with their infants, toddlers and preschoolers
- Encourage them to cuddle up and read together at home and build routines around books
- And then give a new book to the child to take home and keep
Cost-Effective and Scalable
Our program is integrated into our pediatric care - in fact the American Academy of Pediatrics has endorsed the model, promoting it as "an essential component of pediatric primary care."
This means that it is cost effective - $20 provides the program for one child for a year.
