|
The Marvelous Baby Brain!
Watch this fascinating overview (13 minutes)
as Dr. Patricia Kuhl gets to the root of how we communicate and learn by uncovering how early exposure to language alters the brain. Her research on early language and brain development, and how young children learn, has implications across multiple areas -- critical periods in child development, bilingual education and reading readiness. And if you are seeing lots of bi-lingual patients, you will especially want to watch this clip.
Your parents may wish to receive this link via your next newsletter or website post!
|
|
Provider Training and Retraining
If you and your staff providers have NOT yet taken the Reach Out and Read CME course, at your next all-staff meeting, kindly remind the MDs, DOs, NPs and PAs to do so before the end June (1.25 free CME credits).
Research slides and video clips with providers modeling exam room interactions using the book will enhance and refresh your Reach Out and Read experience and describe best practices.
Reach Out and Read is NOT merely a book give-away program. It is an evidence-based intervention that combines literacy promotion and parental engagement
to get children prepared to enter school ready to learn.
In an era when both children AND parents are increasingly glued to screens and hand-held devices, well-child exams that touch on the importance of early "serve and return" interactions, talking, singing, and reading together, unstructured free play, etc., are more important than ever. Parents need to know that neuroscientific research shows that a baby's brain develops the majority of its synaptic connections and becomes "wired" in the first three years. Reading together is good for baby's brain!
If you need help accessing the CME course, please contact me here. Thank you for attending to this important matter. |
|
Thank you for submitting your Progress Reports!
As you know, Reach Out and Read has minimal reporting requirements - two short progress reports per year, each one for the preceding six-month period. Yet we still know they take time and effort to fill out!
If you haven't already pressed "send", there's still time! Reports are due Friday, March 30th. And remember: be sure to update your Provider list in the contacts section: Delete any providers no longer practicing! Add the new ones!
|
Did You Notice?
Sustainability book shipments arrived later than planned ... but did you notice the back covers?
Books were branded with Reach Out and Read bookplates!
Not only were these books donated to us by Scholastic (to help us bridge the gap left by the loss of federal funding this year), but this small change will help us build name recognition with the families we serve, and encourage them to look to us as a continued literacy resource.
|
|
Reach Out and Read Materials
Looking for Reach out and Read materials for your patients, outreach, or fundraising events?
Log into your myROR page and head to the "ROR Store and Materials" tab here, where you will find marketing materials, t-shirts, bags and other great merchandise!
Note: To order our Developmental Milestones bookmarks... please select our "event" bookmarks. Then, in the "comments" section, type in a note specifically requesting the developmental milestones bookmarks instead.
.
Want to proudly display your participation in Reach Out and Read? Contact our intern
who will send our new "We Are Proud to Participate in Reach Out and Read" 12x18" poster. |
|
We have our first
Adopt-a-Site adopter!
|
|
Considering a contribution to
Reach Out and Read?
|
|
|
Reach Out and Read New England
VERMONT Newsletter
Spring, 2012
Serving 19,459 children
at 54 Programs
distributing 33,276 books |
|
Thanks for forwarding this newsletter to your pediatric and family practice providers and staff! Also, to friends, volunteers, and supporters! Send us email addresses and we'll make sure they automatically receive our quarterly newsletter. Let's spread the word!
|
|
|
Regional Director's Note 
How true it is that sometimes things change on a dime!
Given this year's loss of federal funding, I'm very pleased to report that when Congress filed the FY12 Omnibus Appropriations bill, $28.6 million was included to be set aside for an Innovations in Approaches to Literacy Competitive Grant program so as to support school libraries and national nonprofit literacy organizations working with children in need. When the attendant RFP is released by the U.S. Department of Education (hopefully sometime in April), Reach Out and Read will apply!
Other "good news" includes this: Reach Out and Read has been named a "Bright Spot" Program by the Campaign for Grade Level Reading , a nationwide collaborative effort by dozens of funders to close the gap in achievement that separates low-income students from their peers and improve reading proficiency, especially among children from low-income families. It's our hope that community foundations will now be even more inclined to back the efforts of this important campaign for reading success through their own support of Reach Out and Read.
With such positive news, I am inclined to say that Spring has sprung!
Gretchen Hunsberger
Program Director, New England Region |
|
Welcome to Reach Out and Read!
South Burlington Family Practice, S. Burlington
Clara Keegan, MD, introduced Reach Out and Read to S. Burlington Family Practice upon her arrival there, after first bringing Reach Out and Read to her former practice in Massachusetts. This is one way in which Reach Out and Read keeps expanding!
|
|
Federal Funding
 Capitol Hill Day
Reach Out and Read healthcare providers across the country positively influence the lives of 3.9 million children and families by volunteering their time to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. On March 6th, along with over 100 Reach Out and Read State Program and Medical Directors, I attended Reach Out and Read's annual "Capitol Hill Day" to educate our legislators about the effectiveness of Reach Out and Read, and to lobby for next year's federal funding!
We were a force to be reckoned with! Nearly 300 meetings were held with members of congress or with their staffers.
I met with staffers from the offices of Representative Welch and Senators Sanders and Leahy, and am deeply grateful for their individual support of the work we do and the children we serve.
We also invited each legislator to visit a Reach Out and Read Program when next in their district. If you would like to host Senator Leahy, Senator Sanders, or Representative Welch at your Program, I'd be happy to help with the invitation process. Please contact me at 617 455 0656 or at gretchen.hunsberger@reachoutandread.org |
News of Note
Reach Out and Read National Center recently unveiled its new 2012 national promotional video. Please feel free to share this 4:30-minute video featuring CSI New York star Hill Harper with your staff, community members, donors,
 | | 2012 Reach Out and Read Video |
families, social networks, or anyone interested in learning about Reach Out and Read! This video will be particularly helpful when paired with your Adopt A Site efforts!Early Education Day at the Legislature Thanks to an invitation from KAP1 (Kids are Priority One !), Dr. Andrea Green from University Pediatrics in Burlington, and I attended Ear4ly Education Day at the Legislature where we presented on Reach Out and Read as an innovative service delivery model at one of the day's four breakout sessions. Attendees/early childhood advocates learned not only about Reach Out and Read, but also about Children's Integrated Services (Karen Garabino), Family Nurse Partnership (Dr. Breena Holmes), and Family Care Provider Mentorships (Didi Harris, Birth to Three). THen the panelists participated in a 45-minute Q&A period facilitated by Kim Friedman, Organizing Director of KAP1. Afterwards, attendees and presenters (seated by region with local legislators) continued their advocacy efforts on behalf of Vermont's children in an informal setting over lunch. The morning's keynote address by Barbara O'Brien, Senior Fellow for the Piton Foundation and Policy Director of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, encouraged continued collaboration and advocacy at all levels...grassroots, nonprofit, state legislative, and philanthropic...in all the work we are doing to support and improve the early care, health and education of Vermont's youngest children. Pediatric resident, Dr. Sarah Canale, joined Dr. Green for the day's activities. By the end of the experience, Sarah was even more committed to focus her advocacy project on literacy...and she will keep us posted! |
Reach Out and Read National Center Wants ... YOU!
Can you illustrate the power of Reach Out and Read in action? Do you know a family or child who's been particularly helped by Reach Out and Read? Did you develop a closer relationship with a family because of Reach Out and Read? Have you used the book in an interesting way? If so, send us an email!
Your everyday stories and personal quotes bolster our clinical evidence, and help us in our fundraising efforts and grant requests. And...they can earn you 100 books for your Program if National uses your story!
Click here to see past winners. |
|
|
|
|
