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Massachusetts Coalition Newsletter
Reach Out and Read*56 Roland Street*Suite 100D* Boston, MA*Tel:617-455-0655
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Reaching 181,000 Children
253 Locations
330,000 Books Distributed Annually
| May, 2010
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Welcome To Reach Out and Read!
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Hopkinton
Main Street Pediatrics
Methuen
Pediatric Health Center
Springfield Bharati Reejhsinghani, MD
Rainbow Pediatrics
Springfield Pediatrics
Syeda Awais, MD
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REMINDER!
Don't miss the Reach Out and Read-MA 1.5 CME Workshop- ROR National Center in Boston!
Saturday, May 22, 9:00-11:30 am.
(breakfast included)
A morning of refreshers and new tips: Talks by: Marilyn Augustyn, MD - Anticipatory Guidance thru the Ages: Are We
Getting Any Better At It When We Use the Book? - a humorous and lively romp
through time.
Monica Ultmann, MD - Emergent
Literacy in Children with Developmental Disabilities - how to use the book to full advantage.
Free Passes to the Stoneham Zoo for those in
attendance. We can give you some great ideas for family activities while you are in the workshop. Meet up
afterwards for a picnic at the zoo!
RSVP by May 18 to nora.murphy@reachoutandread.org
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1.25 CME Reach Out and Read on-line Provider Training
Reach Out and Read National rolls out its improved on-line
training module this summer, but until then, please note that a PDF of the
training ... complete with videos of doctors doing Reach Out and Read in the exam room ... serves
as a "placeholder" and will fulfill your training requirement. 1.25 CMEs.
Sign in at www.myROR.org
and click on the "training" tab. For assistance: Abigail.Dalton@reachoutandread.org
or 617-455-0631.
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From the Reach Out and Read-MA Medical Director... "I can't hear you over the
television!"
In
February 2001 when the AAP released its policy statement
on Children and the Media (PEDIATRICS Vol. 107 No. 2 February 2001, pp.
423-426) describing the possible decrease school performance and negative health effects -- such as
violent or aggressive behavior, substance use, sexual activity,
obesity, poor
body image -- of television viewing on children and adolescents, many pediatric clinicians were uncomfortable with
the force
of their final recommendations: that clinicians should discourage television viewing for children younger than
2 years and encourage more
interactive activities that promote proper brain development, such
as talking, playing, singing, and reading together. On its face, no
one could contest these recommendations, yet in reality, many felt
uncomfortable advising absolutely NO TV for the under two set. As such, many
clinicians avoided the topic until children were over two years, when they felt
more comfortable advising daily limits - no more than 1-2 hours of quality
media/screen time.
A recent study by Christakis, et
al, in the article "Audible Television
and Decreased Adult Words, Infant Vocalizations, and Conversational Turns"
(Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 163:554-558, June 2009), should help
us rethink that reluctance relative to our media anticipatory guidance in the
first two years of life. This innovative study followed 329 2-48 month old
children who wore a digital recorder on random days for up to 24 months. A
software program incorporating automatic speech identification technology
processed the recorded file to analyze the sounds to which the children were
exposed, as well as the sounds they made. They used linear regression to analyze
the main exposure (audible television) and their outcome measures (adult word
counts, child vocalizations and child conversational turns).
The findings were intriguing. Each
hour of audible television was associated with significant reductions in child
vocalizations, vocalization duration, and conversational turns. But what was most critical was the decreased
exposure to discernable, human adult speech: in terms of adult word count,
500-1000 fewer adult words spoken per
hour of television. Normative data for adult word counts indicate that adults
utter approximately 941 words per hour, which suggests talking is significantly
reduced when a television is audible to the child. (So much for the theory that
watching TV together increases adult-child interaction!)
Research has shown that children
learn from listening and interacting -- that a child's vocabulary is
proportional to the number of words heard in an interactive relationship. So perhaps what we really need to focus on in
a media history is not so much what they
are watching, but what they can do instead
of watching: talking, playing, singing, and reading together.
One of the greatest strengths of
promoting early literacy by giving a book to children and families is that the
book goes home with the family and acts
as a symbol of their clinician and the literacy messages we discuss during the
visit. Hopefully, it also sits hiding
the remote control! -Marilyn Augustyn, MD
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Reach
Out and Read Website Now in Spanish
Terrific news! The Spanish-language version of the national Reach Out and Read website is
now launched. There's a prominent link to the Spanish version at the top of
every page at www.reachoutandread.org. To view the Spanish Language version, click here.
Why? Reach Out and Read serves more than one million Latino children and families
across the country, so this is an incredible new tool to reach out to them, as well
as to donors and providers nationwide. We encourage you to share it with your
families, providers, and community giving partners.
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Bookend City ... It Takes aVillage!
The City of Springfield is now the largest Bookend City in the country. With 19
participating practices serving nearly 15,000 children, Reach Out and Read will soon be
offered to all the children in the city. On May 13th, a presentation will be
made to Mayor Sarno and all the participating Reach Out and Read practices in Springfield to celebrate the City's
commitment to promoting literacy and fostering school readiness.
Kudos to Reach Out and Read Medical Champion Dr. Nancy Miller, and to Lee MacKinnon (Western MA regional coordinator) for their dedication to spreading the word to Springfield physicians!
A city-wide Reach Out and Read Provider Training will be held on June 17 at 6 pm at Baystate Hospital. All new Reach Out and Read providers must attend, but providers are invited. Video clips of docs in the exam room; 1.5 CMEs. RSVP to Lee.MacKinnon@reachoutandread.org.
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New Bilingual
Bookmarks and Posters/New Tri-lingual Poster
Thanks to
generous support from the Klarman Family Foundation, Reach Out and Read-MA has just created a
Spanish/English bi-lingual reading tips poster for waiting rooms and/or
exam room areas, as well as bilingual reading tips bookmarks for
families to take home. And because Portuguese is the third-most spoken language in the state, our Read Together Every Day poster is now available in English/Spanish/Portuguese and now comes smaller (18x24"), to better fit your available wall space.
Reach Out and Read National recently unveiled a new, 12-minute DVD focusing on how MDs,
Child Life Specialists, and Parent Educators can present the early literacy message in a way that
will be most meaningful to their Latino families, both in the exam room and in
the waiting room.
If you are interested in
receiving this short but informative DVD to share at lunch time or provider
meetings, please contact Nora at 617-455-0657 or nora.murphy@reachoutandread.org .
PS...When
you run out of bookmarks, we can make the PDF available to you and you can use
your copier to create your own!
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 THANK YOU FOX25 Morning News - for again encouraging residents in communities across the Commonwealth to donate new books to Reach Out and Read during
your weekly ZIP TRIPS!! Last year over 4,000 books were collected and given to
local Programsduring this drive.
Each week FOX25 Morning News broadcasts from a different town
green. Check their website to learn what books are being collected! The first broadcast was in North Andover -- stay tuned in to see if your town is next!
To learn more about FOX 25 Morning News click here
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 IDEAS from the field ...
At Mason Square Health Center in
Springfield,
photos of physicians and staff reading to their own children have for many
years adorned the waiting room walls along with Reach Out and Read posters. Consider asking your
staff to take their own pictures and send your communications department the JPEG for
enlarging and framing! Dr. Aaron Bornstein, Middleboro
Pediatrics,
sometimes finds great new book deals through his child's daycare center! Scholastic
runs school fundraisers, earning schools and day care centers free books according to the number ordered through the children. "My day care provider offers these
fundraisers monthly. Generally there is at least one book on sale for $1
apiece, so I tend to pick and choose and then buy in bulk when the right book
at the right price comes along!"
Girl Scouts in Westford spoke about Reach Out and Read at their
elementary schools, created fliers, and placed decorated book collection boxes
all
around town. Then the 9 and 10 year-olds dutifully sorted the books,
delivering over 2,666 new and used books to the Reach Out and Read Program at Boston's Children's Hospital. Shown (on left) are the members of Junior Troop #60804, smiling and feeling
their worth. Girls rock!
Legislative Visits - One of the most important ways our legislators can learn about Reach Out and Read-in-action and its direct impact on their constituents, is to visit a Site, speak with the physicians, and read to children.
If your Program is interested in hosting a legislator, let us know! Contact Katie Ahearn. We thank the entire MA delegation for its consistent support of promoting literacy and
school readiness at well visits! 
State Sen. Jamie Eldridge (photo on left) and
Dr. Ricardo Lewitus at Marlborough Pediatrics in March.
State
Sen. Stephen Brewer (photo on right) read to children before taking a tour of the Reach Out and Read Program at
UMass Memorial/Barre Family Health Center, hosted by Dr. Stacie Potts.
 Gifts to
Give (www.giftstogive.org) in New Bedford has partnered in several
ways with Reach Out and Read-MA on the South Coast. Working from a refurbished
warehouse on the New Bedford waterfront, G2G first focused on
collecting gently used items such as toys, clothing and school supplies for
children in need. Volunteers, many of them students, sort and refurbish
these items, then package them to match the needs of social service
agencies' requests for individual children. According to the founder, Jim
Stevens, "We are about giving students a tangible, immediate, and sustainable opportunity
to work for social justice." Taking "shifts", area students
process, package, and fill orders for in-need South Coast kids." Increasingly,
Gifts to Give has come to supply boxes of gently-used books for Reach Out and Read waiting
rooms in New Bedford and surrounding towns. Currently Reach Out and Read programs pick
up the books, but delivery to Programs may soon be an option, thanks to local senior
volunteers! (Email Alison.clarke@reachoutandread.org
if you are interested in learning more about this possibility.)
This Spring, G2G developed its
early literacy focus and now also works with the New Bedford Public Schools'
"Sail into Kindergarten" program, as well as South Coast libraries, working to help
replenish the libraries at New Bedford elementary schools. Thus,
within just two years, G2G has had a significant impact in New Bedford. Read more
about its history and mission here.
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