Program:
Reach Out and Read
- Budget:
-
$14,631,751
- Category:
-
Education, General/Other
- Population Served:
-
Infants/Babies (under age 5)
-
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
-
Other Named Groups
Program Description:
Reach Out and Read prepares America's youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together.
Each program Site incorporates Reach Out and Read's evidence-based, three-part model:
In the pediatric exam room, pediatricians speak to parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children every day, and offer age-appropriate tips and encouragement.
At each regular checkup from 6 months through 5 years of age, the child receives a new, culturally- and developmentally-appropriate book to take home and keep.
Parents incorporate advice received through pediatric visits and make reading aloud part of their daily routine. Our families read up to 350 hours with their children prior to kindergarten.
Program Long-Term Success:
Reach Out and Read aims to set the stage for reading achievement, by reaching parents during the early, critical period of their child's development.
More than one-third (34%) of American children entering kindergarten today lack the basic language skills they will need to learn to read. Children who live in print-rich environments and who are read to during the first years of life are more likely to develop stronger reading abilities and enter school prepared to succeed. Fewer than half of parents (48%) in the United States read to their young children daily, and economically-challenged families may lack the money to buy books or not have access to high quality books.
Reach Out and Read is working toward the day when all children enter kindergarten with highly-engaged parents, performing at grade level, and prepared to excel.
Program Short-Term Success:
Fourteen published, peer-reviewed research studies support the efficacy of Reach Out and Read. This is a more extensive body of research than for any other psychosocial intervention in general pediatrics.
Children who have participated in Reach Out and Read enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies, stronger language skills, and a six-month developmental edge. Entering kindergarten with foundational literacy skills necessary to learn to read ensures that our children will read at or above grade level, and achieve academic success.
Parents who participate in Reach Out and Read demonstrate significant changes in how frequently they read to their children, and in their beliefs and attitudes toward reading aloud. Reach Out and Read parents are four times more likely to read to their children. The advice and instruction conveyed to parents at just one or two annual pediatric visits profoundly impacts daily parental behavior to have significant long-term effects.
Program Success Monitored by:
Reach Out and Read programmatic staff ensure exceptional program execution and program evaluation. When implemented with fidelity, our program model is proven to produce behavioral changes in parents and marked educational improvements in children. To ensure the depth of our impact on children and families, programmatic staff provide oversight to ensure the following:
100% of our books are developmentally and culturally-appropriate.
A brand new book is distributed at each well-child visit for children ages 6 months through 5 years.
The books are consistently accompanied by developmental guidance and advice from the doctor.
Additionally, nationally-renowned STIM Q research evaluation measures Reach Out and Read's impact on parental behaviors. Hired experienced researchers conduct the study in Reach Out and Read waiting rooms, collect the data, and analyze the results.
Program Success Examples:
"Reach Out and Read gets children ready to read and parents like me wanting to read. From birth, my son loved to hear me read books to him. Now, he is an active 2-year-old who can never get enough of reading. With a new book at every well visit, he always has a book to read."
-- A Reach Out and Read Parent, Philadelphia, PA
"Next to the immunizations we give, Reach Out and Read is the most important intervention we accomplish during the well-child visit."
--Daniel Webster Hudgings, MD, Sage Memorial Hospital, AZ
"By building on the special relationship between parents and medical providers, Reach Out and Read helps children enter school prepared to learn and succeed."
--United States Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island)
"In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child."
-- President Barack Obama
Program:
Special Initiative: Leyendo Juntos
- Budget:
-
$1,031,340
- Category:
-
Education, General/Other
- Population Served:
-
Infants/Babies (under age 5)
-
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
-
Hispanics
Program Description:
The Leyendo Juntos (Reading Together) Initiative assists primary care providers in effectively encouraging Latino parents and extended family members to read with their children.
Leyendo Juntos follows the three-part model of pediatric guidance, prescribing books, and encouraging parents to read aloud at home, emphasizing respect for patients' cultures and primary language. The Initiative builds upon best practices that medical providers at various levels of linguistic proficiency (e.g. native Spanish speakers, near-fluent speakers, and those who speak medically-appropriate Spanish) use to emphasize the importance of early literacy to Spanish-speaking families. Parents understand the critical impact reading together has on their child's development and future school success.
Special tools, such as a Spanish Language Literacy Promotion Guide, Spanish-language books and materials, and Reach Out and Read's Spanish-language website, help medical providers better serve Latino families.
Program Long-Term Success:
Children of Spanish-speaking families are more than twice as likely to fail fourth-grade reading assessments than non-Latino white children. Latino families have on average 20 fewer books in their homes than their English-speaking counterparts, and 58 percent of Latino fourth-graders read below the basic level. Reach Out and Read programs nationwide serve families for whom Spanish is their first language, benefiting more than one million Latino children and families.
Reach Out and Read aims to ensure that all Latino children enter kindergarten with highly-engaged parents, performing at grade level, and prepared to excel. Recognizing and leveraging the strong sense of culture and strong family and social connections Latinos share, we hope to help families overcome some disparities they face, and ensure school success for their children.
Program Short-Term Success:
Reach Out and Read's three part model of pediatric guidance, prescribing books, and encouraging parents to read aloud at home is proven to change parental behaviors and improve educational outcomes for children participating in the five year program.
The Leyendo Juntos initiative offers additional benefits for participating families. According to an independent study, Hispanic parents whose children had received bilingual books, educational materials, and literacy-promoting anticipatory guidance were more likely to report reading aloud with their children at least three days per week, and that reading was one of their three favorite activities (Golova et al. "Literacy Promotion for Hispanic families in a primary care setting: A randomized controlled trial." Pediatrics 1998; 103, p. 993-997).
Program Success Monitored by:
Program success for Leyendo Juntos is monitored using the same methods as for the general Reach Out and Read program.
Program Success Examples:
"One of my patients is a 1-year-old girl from a Spanish-speaking family. Sometimes I give her bilingual books in Spanish and English, sometimes I give her books in Spanish. At her last checkup, her mother began to cry explaining how upset she was that she could not read to her daughter in English. I told her about an adult literacy program in the area, and she's already started the classes. Reach Out and Read doesn't just affect the life of the child - it can improve the literacy of everyone in the home.-- Reach Out and Read Pediatrician, San Diego, CA
Program:
Special Initiative: American Indian/Alaska Native Initiative
- Budget:
-
$665,378
- Category:
-
Education, General/Other
- Population Served:
-
Infants/Babies (under age 5)
-
Native Americans/American Indians
-
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
Program Description:
The Reach Out and Read American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Coalition was established in 2007 as a partnership between the AAP Committee on Native American Child Health (CONATCH), the Indian Health Service (IHS) and Reach Out and Read. The Initiative aims to:
Provide on-site training, technical assistance, and quality improvement visits to our Sites at Indian Health Service/Tribal/Urban (ITU) clinics nationwide.
Secure funding for each Program's annual book budget. Most I/T/U clinics are under funded and lack discretionary funds to purchase Reach Out and Read books.
Expand the Reach Out and Read program to additional I/T/U clinics across the country.
Procure books with Native American themes and in Native American languages.
Currently, 211 Sites serve more than 55,000 Native American children ages 6 months through 5 years.
Program Long-Term Success:
Reach Out and Read is working toward the day when all children enter kindergarten with highly-engaged parents, performing at grade level, and prepared to excel. There is a clear need to promote and encourage early literacy among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children:
Eighty percent of AI/AN children on reservations live in families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.
AI/AN children, as a group, have some of the lowest test scores, the lowest high school graduation rates, and the lowest college entry and graduation rates of any minority group in the nation.
There are limited AI/AN-themed children's books available, and those that exist are often quite expensive.
Early language development ensures later school achievement of young children. Fourteen published research studies show the efficacy of Reach Out and Read. By saturating AI/AN communities, we can ensure that AI/AN children receive the resources they need to arrive at school prepared to succeed.
Program Short-Term Success:
Participation in Reach Out and Read's three part model of pediatric guidance, prescribing books, and encouraging parents to read aloud at home guarantees changes in parental behavior and improvement in children's school readiness.
Parents who have participated in Reach Out and Read are four times more likely to read aloud to their children, and children who have participated in the program arrive at school with larger vocabularies, stronger language skills, and a six-month developmental edge.
Indian Health Service/Tribal/Urban (I/T/U) clinics care for 75 percent of AI/AN children, and provide an established infrastructure to reach this population. Currently, 200 of the approximately 400 I/T/U clinics have implemented Reach Out and Read in their healthcare setting. Thus, we are able to achieve significant reach within the AI/AN community and profoundly impact this population.
Program Success Monitored by:
Program success for Reach Out and Read's American Indian/Alaska Native Coalition is monitored using the same methods as for the general Reach Out and Read program.
Program Success Examples:
Program:
Special Initiative: Reach Out and Read in the Military
- Budget:
-
$1,549,531
- Category:
-
Education, General/Other
- Population Served:
-
Infants/Babies (under age 5)
-
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
-
Other Named Groups
Program Description:
Reach Out and Read in the Military was launched in 2006 to deliver our three part model (pediatric guidance, prescribing books, and encouraging parents to read aloud at home) to military children nationwide. The Initiative addresses the unique pressures on military families, including separation, deployment, injury, or even the death of a parent.
Building upon early support from the Department of Defense, Reach Out and Read implements its literacy program at targeted U.S. military healthcare facilities, laying the foundation for one day serving all military families with young children. Reach Out and Read in the Military currently serves 109,000 military children at 55 U.S. bases around the world. More than 400 military healthcare providers participate in Reach Out and Read, and we additionally serve National Guard/Reserve families through our civilian Programs.
Program Long-Term Success:
Reach Out and Read in the Military is working toward the day when all children in military families enter kindergarten with highly-engaged parents, performing at grade level, and prepared to excel. Our mission is to provide military families with essential resources that help them cope with the unique pressures they face.
In support with Joining Forces, a White House initiative to honor and support America's service members and their families, Reach Out and Read will expand to 100 U.S. bases by 2013. This will enable us to ultimately double our reach to serve 200,000 children in military families, and ensure that these children arrive at school prepared to read and excel.
Program Short-Term Success:
Families participating in Reach Out and Read in the Military are equipped with critical skills that help them cope in difficult times. The military system provides full and systematic primary care for the children of military families, enabling Reach Out and Read to one day reach all military children.
Reach Out and Read changes parental behaviors so that parents read aloud to their children regularly. Children participating in the program enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies, stronger language skills, and a six-month developmental edge.
Reading aloud is a proven technique to help children cope with stress and anxiety. Reach Out and Read especially benefits military families by building routines to reassure children during stressful times such as deployment. Reach Out and Read in the Military helps military parents understand developmental stages, and develop skills and knowledge that are essential for families tested by multiple deployments, separation, and reintegration.
Program Success Monitored by:
Program success for Reach Out and Read in the Military is monitored using the same methods as for the general Reach Out and Read program.
Program Success Examples:
As Cpt. Mary Beth Doyle, a U.S. Air Force pediatrician, said on a recent "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" segment highlighting Reach Out and Read's military initiative, "Reading is a proven coping mechanism for children in times of stress and tragedy."