|
AAP Policy Statement Recommends Reach Out and Read as Standard Part of Pediatric Primary Care
Partnership Announced with Clinton Global Initiative, Too Small to Fail, and Scholastic
(l-r) Brian Gallagher, Reach Out and Read Executive Director; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Greg Worrell, President of Scholastic's Classroom and Library Group; and Fan Tait, MD, FAAP, Associate Executive Director of AAP and Director, Department of Community and Specialty Pediatrics.
At the fourth annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America meeting in Denver, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a new collaborative effort between Too Small to Fail, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Scholastic Inc. and Reach Out and Read, dedicated to raising awareness among parents about early language development.
Simultaneously, the AAP issued a new policy statement promoting the incorporation of literacy guidance as an "essential" component of primary care visits from an infant's very first days. Through this commitment, the partners will ensure that doctors, parents and caregivers have the information, tools and books needed to promote reading aloud to children every day, starting in infancy.
The effort takes a multi-pronged approach toward equipping parents with the best tools to ensure that their children are prepared to learn as they enter school:
- Too Small to Fail and the AAP--an organization representing 62,000 pediatricians--will share messages across their networks and media platforms about the importance of talking, reading aloud, and singing to children from birth in order to build vocabulary and promote healthy brain development.
- To jumpstart the partnership, Scholastic has donated 500,000 new, age-appropriate children's books for distribution through Reach Out and Read, the non-profit organization that works with 20,000 medical providers nationwide to promote early reading and give books to families at pediatric visits.
- Reach Out and Read will also distribute a toolkit to be developed by the AAP, with support from Too Small to Fail, that will equip pediatricians with resources to educate parents on how to use everyday activities to improve communication with their infants and toddlers.
The AAP's policy statement is a true validation of the work we are doing at Reach Out and Read to encourage families to read together and develop critical early literacy skills before children enter pre-school and kindergarten. Read more about the AAP policy recommendation and CGI collaborative at:
|
|
Hear Recent MicroLectures
| |
If you have missed any of our most recent 30-minute microlectures, they are now available on line. Recent titles include
Bilingual Development: What Every Provider Should Know, Erika Hoff, PhD.
Making the Most of the Book: The Book and the Baby, Cathy Wiley, MD
Making the Most of the Book: The Book and the Toddler, Amy Shriver, MD
Using the Book You Have Natalie Golova, MD
For a full list, go to the Training tab of www.myror.org.
|
Young
Investigators Named
Jayna Schumacher, MD, of Boston Medical Center, along with John Hutton, MD, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, is the 2014 winner of the American Pediatric Association Young Investigator Award Program for Primary Care Strategies for the Promotion of Early Literacy and School Readiness.
The award, which is given in partnership with Reach Out and Read, provides financial support for young investigators whose research projects focus on interventions in primary care intended to support the early stages of literacy development and school readiness among children at risk for reading problems or school failure.
Dr. Schumacher's project isUse of E-Books to Support Emerging Readers from Families with Low Socioeconomic Status. She is a fellow at Boston Medical Center, working with Dr. Barry Zuckerman, MD and Dr. Robert Needlman, MD. Dr. Hutton's project is A Neuroimaging-Based Pilot Study Comparing Brain Regions Involved With Receptive Language in Reach Out and Read "Graduates" and Unexposed Children.
He is working with Dr. Tom Dewitt, MD and Dr. Alan Mendelsohn, MD.
Both Young Investigators will be submitting progress reports in September 2014 and April 2015, and a final report on their work will be given by September 15, 2015. Learn more about the Young Investigator Award Program here.
|
|
Greater Worcester Community Foundation Funds Worcester Program Sites
|
The Worcester "Rx for Reading" Initiative was recently funded in part by a grant from the Greater Worcester Community Foundation. These funds will allow Reach Out and
 Read to purchase additional books for practices in the city of Worcester where, according to 2012 data from the Annie E Casey Foundation, 59 percent of third-graders scored below proficient in reading. In Worcester, Reach Out and Read is practiced in 14 clinics and health centers, reaching over 7,600 children annually, to prepare them for reading and school success. Thank you to the Greater Worcester Community Foundation!
|
|
 Reach Out and Read Celebrates Primrose
On May 6, Reach Out and Read was thrilled to help Primrose Schools celebrate the opening of its Burlington location, the first Primrose School in Massachusetts! At the event, Primrose CEO and Reach Out and Read National Board member Jo Kirchner expressed her enormous support of Reach Out and Read and of our mission to ensure that all children grow up with a love of books, strong language skills, and a family that reads aloud.
Reach Out and Read's Boston Coordinator Carole Ferguson attended the school's kick-off event, along with other community and early education leaders. Reach Out and Read is grateful for Primrose's long-standing support of our program, and we look forward to supporting the new Primrose School, which is located just miles from the Reach Out and Read National Center in Boston. We will be continuing the conversation about the best ways to collaborate around literacy!
|
|
click here to see our websiteclick here to see our Facebook page
Reach Out and Read New England
Massachusetts Newsletter
Serving 188,190 Massachusetts children
in 293 clinical locations
|
|
Dear Reach Out and Read Providers, Coordinators and Supporters,
Twenty-five years of Reach Out and Read! What an accomplishment! And it all started in Massachusetts.
What that means is that a generation of parents and children throughout the Commonwealth is familiar with our model of pediatric early literacy. With four medical schools and at least seven residency training programs in Massachusetts, thousands of primary care providers have started their medical careers practicing Reach Out and Read.
At the graduation of Family Practice residents at UMASS Memorial in Worcester, preceptor Ron Adler, MD, said
"Some young people in our communities are finding it hard to get good jobs. Why?
Because they didn't get a quality education. Why?
Because they didn't become proficient at reading by 3rd grade. Why?
Because they weren't ready for Kindergarten when they started. Why?
Because they had not developed fundamental early language and literacy skills. Why?
Because they were not read to as infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. Why?
Because it was not a large part of their family's experience - and because their doctor did not recommend it!"
As pediatric and family practice residents across the Commonwealth graduate and prepare to continue their careers in practices, hospitals, and clinics in Massachusetts and beyond, we want to ensure that they bring Reach Out and Read with them. Many current Reach Out and Read practices have been started by residents who practiced Reach Out and Read during their training, and many more have been invigorated by the energy of new graduates, fulfilling Reach Out and Read's earliest mission: making "literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric primary care."
To see how Reach Out and Read is welcoming residents into practice at one residency training program, and to read more of Dr. Adler's remarks, see the article below. We welcome all these new providers into the Reach Out and Read family and look forward to meeting them as they move on to the next stage of their professional lives.
Heather Robinson, MPH
Central MA Regional
Coordinator
|
|
|
American Academy of
Physician's Assistants
More than two hundred physician's assistants were in attendance when Marilyn Augustyn, MD, Reach Out and Read Massachusetts Medical Director, addressed the American Academy of Physician's Assistants National Convention in Boston on May 24. This is the second such group Dr. Augustyn has presented to this year; in March she spoke at the NAPNAP Conference in Boston.
While nurse practitioners and physician's assistants are trained and licensed differently, they both are providers in many of our clinics-- giving the same well-child care with anticipatory guidance, prescribing the same books, and carrying a panel of patients. These providers encourage families to read aloud, providing anticipatory guidance as well as a new Reach Out and Read book.
At both conferences the attendance was huge, the enthusiasm warm and encouraging, and the interest high in carrying the message back to communities where providers will be able to start new programs in their clinics. Alison Corning Clarke and Carole Ferguson staffed follow-up tables with information and joined in meetings with members of the organizations' leadership. Both groups are working with Gretchen Hunsberger, Reach Out and Read Director of Program Quality and Provider Training, so that our organization can form meaningful partnerships with these important providers.
 | | Marilyn Augustyn, MD |
|
|
|
|
|
