Making books part of a healthy childhood
Reach Out and Read is a program supported by Health Services, Inc and administered through our pediatric department at the Montgomery Primary Care location. The program is overseen by Dr. Penny White, a Pediatrician and the Assistant Medical Director for Health Services, Inc.
Doctors and nurses give new books and advice about the importance of reading aloud in the pediatric exam room.
Doctors and nurses give new books to children at each well child visit from 6 months to 5 years, and couple it with developmentally appropriate advice to parents about reading aloud with their child. The ROR program model is based on research that shows a connection between the frequency of sharing books with babies, toddlers and young children and enhanced language development.
Since 1989, ROR pediatricians have been prescribing books and reading aloud for their young patients, with a special focus on children growing up in poverty. ROR trained doctors and nurses are currently promoting pediatric literacy at more than 2,500 hospitals, health centers and private pediatric practices. A national, non-profit literacy organization, Reach Out and Read is affiliated with the Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine.
Its mission is to make 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 helps families and communities encourage early literacy skills so children enter school prepared for success in reading.
Program Accomplishments
- Currently, there are more than 2,500 ROR program sites based on the ROR model all located at clinics, hospitals, office practices or other primary care sites.
- Program sites can be found in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
- ROR serves more than 2.1 million children annually.
- ROR distributes more than 3.4 million books each year.
- 28,000 pediatricians, nurses, and other clinicians have been trained in the ROR strategies of early literacy.
- Reach Out and Read is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
For more information about this nationwide program, visit their web site at www.reachoutandread.org