Care For PA

Instead of a sticker or a lollipop, patients between the ages of six months and five years who receive a checkup at Somerset Family Practice or the Somerset Adolescent and Pediatric Health Center (both a part of Somerset Hospital) will get something much more valuable: a new book to call their own.

Somerset Hospital, like many Pennsylvania hospitals, has embraced the nationwide early literacy program called "Reach Out and Read,�? which trains doctors and nurses to advise parents about the importance of reading to children and to provide their young patients with a book. Since Somerset Hospital began participating in the program five years ago, it has distributed more than 10,000 books to children during their checkups.

There are 82 Reach Out and Read clinical locations in Pennsylvania, including 20 affiliated with hospitals, which distribute 100,406 new books annually. These sites reach more than 61,872 children across the state.

Children are given a book after each routine checkup between the ages of six months and five years, with a special focus on children growing up in poverty. "Today's ideal pediatricians not only help children grow up strong and healthy but promote cognitive development as well,�? says Trude Haecker, M.D., chief medical officer for ambulatory and associate chief medical officer for The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In 1996, Dr. Haecker introduced Reach Out and Read in four West Philadelphia primary care centers run by the hospital. The program has grown to six sites and gave out more than 20,000 books in one year.

"By providing books and the message that reading aloud is critical for language development, our Reach Out and Read pediatricians and nurse practitioners provide parents with real tools they can use to help their children succeed in school,�? says Dr. Haecker. "Even if a parent struggles with reading, by merely looking at pictures with their child, labeling familiar objects or using the book as a starting point to fashion their own story, they can initiate their child into the joy and power of reading.�?

The books are developmentally and culturally appropriate--starting with board books for babies and moving to more complex picture books for preschoolers. Through Reach Out and Read, each child starts kindergarten with a home library of up to 12 books and a parent who, at every checkup, has heard about the importance of books and reading.

In waiting rooms, displays, information, and gently used books create a literacy rich environment. Where possible, volunteer readers engage the children with books, modeling for the parents the pleasures--and techniques--of reading aloud. "It's a very rewarding program; one that I'm passionate about,�? says Rosalie Maehrer, volunteer reader and founder of the Reach Out and Read program at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network's pediatric clinic in Allentown. "The children are so receptive, imaginative, and interactive. It also keeps the children entertained and distracted since they're often scared about receiving an immunization.�? The Lehigh Valley program has 16 volunteer readers and serves more than 5,000 children each year. Since the program began five years ago, it has distributed more than 20,000 books to children.

Published research shows that Reach Out and Read works. Early language skills develop from exposure to the words of parents and other adults. The more words parents use when speaking to an eight-month-old infant, the greater the size of the child's vocabulary at age three. Children from low-income families often hear and learn fewer words. As a result, they more frequently suffer delays in their language and learning. This leaves them behind in school before they even start. Families participating in Reach Out and Read are far more likely to read to their children and have more children's books in their homes, and the children gain three to six months on tests of language development.

"We have family members who come in and tell us what a great difference it makes,�? said Jonathan Han, M.D., medical director at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Kensington Family Health Center in New Kensington. "We're really contributing to building a kind of library in their home. [Parents] tell us we're doing something for them that their parents didn't do for them.�?

"I am constantly amazed at how excited the children are,�? says Hans Kersten, M.D., Reach Out and Read site medical director for Ambulatory Pediatrics within St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. The site has participated since 2001 and has given out more than 3,500 books yearly. "The best part of the program is that the children constantly ask for a book. They excitedly tell us how much they love reading the books, and look forward to coming to the clinic to get another.�? The hospital has a total of five sites and gives out more than 15,000 books each year.

Pamela Washington, mother of a Children's Hospital Reach Out and Read participant, agrees. "The Reach Out and Read program 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 two-year-old that can never get enough of reading. With a new book at every well visit he always has a book to read.�?

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