Reach Out and Read
The Children's Clinic is proud to announce that we are now participating with the nationally recognized Reach Out and Read program.
Simply put, at each of your child's well-child physicals (age 6 months thru 5 years), he/she will be given an age-appropriate book.
Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national nonprofit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud in pediatric exam rooms across the nation.
Our physicians know that growing up healthy means growing up with books. The ROR program provides the tools to help promote children's developmental skills and later school success.
The Reach Out and Read Mission
Reach Out and Read makes literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric primary care, so that children grow up with books and a love of reading.
Reach Out and Read trains doctors and nurses to advise parents about the importance of reading aloud and to give books to children at pediatric checkups from 6 months to 5 years of age, with a special focus on children growing up in poverty. By building on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers, Reach Out and Read helps families and communities encourage early literacy skills so children enter school prepared for success in reading.
Reach Out and Read History
In 1989, Reach Out and Read was founded at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) through a collaboration between pediatricians, family physicians, nurses, and early childhood educators.
As a result of their work, physicians and educators realized that pediatricians and nurse practitioners were in a unique position to promote early literacy for two reasons:
Pediatricians, family physicians, and nurses regularly interact with young children and their parents at well-child checkups.
Parents trust and respect the guidance that they receive from pediatricians, family physicians, and nurses. When doctors and nurses discuss the importance of reading in an exam-room setting, parents realize the significance of the message.
Reach Out and Read was originally based on a simple but powerful premise: encourage parents to read regularly to their children and give them the tools (the books) to do so.
For the complete, year-by-year history of Reach Out and Read nationwide, click here.
Reach Out and Read Current Statistics
ROR serves 3.8 million children annually.
ROR distributes over 6 million books each year.
To date, more than 52,000 pediatricians, nurses, residents, and health professionals have been trained in the ROR model of early-literacy promotion.
Reach Out and Read is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
There are more than 4,535 ROR programs based on the ROR model at clinics, hospitals, and health centers in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.
If you would like more information on the Reach Out and Read program, please click the picture below.
