© Reach Out and Read
Dr Kenneth L. Fox with a young patient.

One of UNESCO’s two Confucius Prizes for Literacy was attributed this year to the U.S. organization Reach out and Read for its work with health care providers to reach low-income children at risk of dropping out of school.

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As a poet, I cannot imagine a life without words. Language is the element in which the mind lives, and it is the very basis of human being. More

Three-year-old Miguel lived in Los Angeles, California, with his mother who faced chronic illness, depression and poverty. Despite this, she brought Miguel to the doctor for his well-child visits. Each time they left the clinic, Miguel clutched a brand-new Reach Out and Read book. Miguel and his mother cherished those books. Two years later, Miguel is the number one reader in his kindergarten class. He loves to read and he looks set to become a lifelong learner. Miguel is certain to face many obstacles, but Reach Out and Read has brought hope to his life. His success, says his paediatrician, is a testament to the power of Reach Out and Read to help families break the cycle of poverty.

This year, thousands of doctors will give 4.6 million new books to 2.8 million infants, toddlers and preschoolers from low-income families at check-ups and advise their parents about the importance of reading. The only American literacy programme featured at the recent White House Conference on Global Literacy, Reach Out and Read doctors distribute new books at more than 3,000 paediatric practices, hospitals, clinics and health centres throughout all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. To date, American doctors have given out more than 20 million books. International programmes modelled on Reach Out and Read have been started in Bangladesh, Italy, Israel, the Philippines, England, and Canada.

Reach Out and Read focuses on the most vulnerable children, 6 months to 5 year-olds living in or near poverty. Today, Reach Out and Read helps about 25 percent of America’s most impoverished children. And the number grows daily. Each child who participates in Reach Out and Read starts kindergarten with a home library of up to 10 books and a parent who has heard at every well-child visit about the importance of books and reading. Doctors participating in Reach Out and Read distribute carefully selected new, developmentally and culturally appropriate books – starting with board books for babies and moving on to more complex picture books for preschoolers. Bilingual books are available in 12 languages. Some sites also have volunteer readers who read to children in the waiting rooms.

Research shows that the programme really works. Parents who get books and literacy counselling from their doctors and nurses are more likely to read to their young children, read to them more often, and provide more books at home. Low-income children exposed to Reach Out and Read show improved language development, a critical component of school readiness. Children score four to eight points higher on vocabulary tests, giving 2-year-olds a six month head start developmentally. Reach Out and Read is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Reach Out and Read was co-founded by Barry Zuckerman, M.D., a 6’5” gentle giant who has great warmth, passion and unwavering determination that all children start life with books in their home and a parent who reads to them.

“Reach Out and Read started as a single programme at Boston City Hospital [now Boston Medical Center] with the goal of making literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric primary care,” says Zuckerman, Board Chair and CEO of the organization, who is also Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics of the Boston Medical Center at Boston University School of Medicine. “Today, we reach millions of at-risk children in the U.S. and serve as a model for programmes around the world. But we are far from reaching our goal of providing books to every child and literacy counselling to every parent living in poverty.”

Although, by international standards, the U.S. is considered a rich country, 35 percent of American children start school without the language skills necessary to learn to read.

“One of the tremendous advantages of Reach Out and Read,” says Perri Klass, M.D., Medical Director of Reach Out and Read and Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University, “is that it takes advantage of the existing health care structures, which are to be found in virtually every country in the world to deliver basic health care to children.”

Nearly 46,000 medical providers have been trained by Reach Out and Read since its founding in 1989. The programme now spends a total of over $30 million per annum on its activities across the U.S.A. and receives support from the U.S. Department of Education; as well as 12 states and cities. It also receives donations from corporations, foundations, and individuals.

While doctors give a lot of important advice at check-ups, few interventions have been the object of as much research that substantiates their ability to impact behaviour at home. “Reach Out and Read has one of the strongest records of peer-reviewed research support of any primary care intervention,” Dr. Klass says. “Because we give families the books, we provide the tool to follow the advice.”

“Improved language is the single strongest predictor for school success. Reach Out and Read is working to reach parents and children at the critical stage before they enter kindergarten so children enter school prepared for success in reading.”

By Lauren Fasbinder, Fasbinder & Associates

© Reach Out and Read
A mother reads to her twins.

© Reach Out and Read
Dr Barry Zuckerman reads to a group of children.