“Reach Out and Read started as a simple solution to an obvious problem: waiting rooms without books. Reading aloud was important for young children, and pediatricians had a special opportunity to reach their parents. It was a patently good idea. But if it had been nothing more than that, it would have withered away. Instead, ROR has grown, nurtured by the passionate and inspired efforts of many-educators, doctors, volunteers, parents, corporations, foundations and politicians.”

-Robert Needlman, MD, ROR Co-founder

 

Reach Out and Read makes 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 trains doctors and nurses to advise parents about the importance of reading aloud and to give books to children at pediatric check-ups from six months to five years of age, with a special focus on children growing up in poverty. By building on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers, Reach Out and Read helps families and communities encourage early literacy skills so children enter school prepared for success in reading.

The Reach Out and Read program began as a collaboration between pediatricians and early childhood educators at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) in 1989. Working together, these educators and physicians found that pediatricians and nurse practitioners were in a unique position to promote early literacy for two reasons: They enjoy regular contact with young children and their parents through well-child check-ups. Medical Practitioners are a highly trusted source of guidance for parents of young children. Coming from such a source, information on early literacy carries the weight it deserves.

From the start, ROR was based on a simple but powerful premise: encourage parents to read to their children and give them the tools, (or books) to do so. That premise is the basis for the ROR model utilized by 2,337 program sites today.

-Currently, there are 2,337 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 million children annually.

-ROR distributes more than 3.2 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.

-ROR plans to launch 300 new program sites per year for the next five years. That will double the number of children receiving books and guidance to approximately 3.1 million children annually, with a special focus on children living in poverty.