Reach Out and Read

CONTACT:

56 Roland Street, Suite 100D
Boston, MA 02129
617-629-8042
www.reachoutandread.org

Anne-Marie Fitzgerald, Director of Institutional Advancement

DESCRIPTION:

Here is a fresh idea that is a "Massachusetts original" and catching-on nationwide. Research has shown that children learn to read more readily on schedule if their parents read aloud to them regularly and often, from infancy through the preschool years. Parental reading also promotes children's language skills, warm bonding with parents, and curiosity, and is integral as well to parenting — fostering warmth and nurturing. Why not, then, make the promotion of parental reading to children "as basic to pediatric practice as giving immunizations?"

Reach Out and Read was founded in 1989 to train pediatricians accordingly — e.g., at the American Academy of Pediatrics national meetings and in large pediatric residency programs. Today ROR has trained over 40,000 physicians, nurses and healthcare providers, and is established in nearly 3,000 hospitals and health clinics in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Doctors in the program give low-income parents free books and tips on how to use books more effectively with their children. Since 1989 they have distributed over 4 million books to children in low-income families. Thanks to discounts negotiated with numerous publishers and close tracking of other expenses, a full "prescription" of ROR (10 books over five years) costs only $27.50. Your support will go a long way.

(1998: HUMAN SERVICES: Children and Youth: General)