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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!
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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. |
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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!
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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.
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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.
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Considering a tax-deductible contribution to
Reach Out and Read?
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Don't Forget!
Targ et Grant applications due by April 30th!
This is a perfect -- and easy -- way to raise funds for your Reach Out and Read Program since we provide you the template in the myROR Document Library!
Click here to complete the online application.If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call Gretchen at 617 455 0656. |
Remember ... the work you do every day helps get children ready to learn!
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Reach Out and Read New England
New Hampshire Newsletter
Spring, 2012
Serving 21,701 children
at 44 Programs
distributing 36,496 books |
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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!
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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 |
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Welcome to Reach Out and Read!
Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, Inc.
in Littleton, Whitefield, and Woodsville
These three locations can now all practice Reach Out and Read! Previously, the two smaller Sites (in Whitefield and Littleton) had been generously supported by North County Pediatrics, in Littleton. But when the largest Ammonoosuc site, in Woodsville, also wanted to offer Reach Out and Read to its families, the Health Center knew it was time to seek its own funding.
Kudos to Teresa Brooks, Director of Patient Services at Ammonoosuc, for stewarding this project and bringing it to fruition! Thank you, too, to Anne Connor, librarian and Reach Out and Read Coordinator at Littleton Hospital/North County Pediatrics, for previously ensuring books for the Whitefield and Littleton locations for as long as possible!
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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 Representatives Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass and also with staffers from the offices of Senator Ayotte and Senator Shaheen. I am deeply grateful for their interest in learning more about 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. As a result, Congressman Guinta will be visiting the Manchester Community Health Center on April 4th! If you would like to host Senator Ayotte or Senator Shaheen at your Reach Out and Read Program, I'd be happy to help with the invitation process. Please contact me at 617 455 0656 or gretchen.hunsberger@reachoutandread.org
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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!
Thank you! A big shout out to employees of KBACE Technologies, Inc., Nashua for choosing to support Reach Out and Read over the holidays. Employees were asked to bring either a new or used children's book to their Holiday Party. Many thanks to Maureen Arnone, consulting operations manager, for suggesting the idea and to Nicole Mores (shown here), operations specialist for dropping off six boxes of books!
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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. |
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Fundraising in the Field
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l to r: Kristen Lippincott, RN, (Clinical Leader), Stefanie Ramsay, LPN (Reach Out and Read Coordinator), Dr. Gerri Rubin (Reach Out and Read Medical Director), Gail Dubriske (Receptionist), Wendy Rafford (Receptionist), Cindy Yoerger (Receptionist)
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The Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine Department at Cheshire Medical Center /Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Keene is the Medical Home for about 9,000 children in the southwest part of the state. "We provide well care to about 2,300 children aged 6 months to 5 years," states Reach Out and Read Coordinator Stefanie Ramsey, "which means we spend about $13,000 annually on books!" Luckily for the clinic, Karen Dominico, an administrative assistant there, thought it would be a great idea for all the clinic receptionists to band together as a group to do something "a little bit different and which would benefit the campus." According to Stefanie, "they shared ideas about what to support and then voted unanimously to support Reach Out and Read." In essence, these women decided to "Adopt A Site"! All told, 65 receptionists gathered their favorite recipes into a cookbook, held a contest to name it, and Diagnosis Delicious raised $1,165.50 (231 copies sold!) for the Keene Reach Out and Read Program. "They made it possible for us to purchase over 550 new books!" says Stefanie. |
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