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"Researchers are finding that poverty can harm the brains of small children, perhaps because their brains are subjected to excessive cortisol (a stress hormone) and exposed less to conversation and reading."
--Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
I like this quote particularly because of the "and" in the middle of it. The world of small children and their families is complex. And so too are the systems that exist to support them. The challenge of trying to improve our communities to better support families and nurture the optimal health and development of young children is significant.
At times it feels like there are two well-meaning "camps" trying to figure out how to improve outcomes - one focusing on the "bad stuff" that happens to too many kids (from poverty to abuse and beyond); the other focusing on the "good stuff" that kids need for optimal health and development. The research-proven reality, of course, is that we need to both prevent bad things (and mitigate their impact when they aren't avoided) AND promote the positive things that we know nurture children's healthy development.
Nicholas Kristof understands this. We appreciate his continued focus on early childhood in The New York Times, the book he co-authored with Sheryl WuDunn A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunities, and the documentary by the same name. All of these emphasize the importance of family reading as part of the solution, and highlight the proven efficacy of Reach Out and Read.
So this month we're highlighting some media pieces related to poverty, stress, and Reach Out and Read. Read on to see an amazing video about how reading helped a family with a very premature infant, a blogpost on poverty from the president of Child Trends, and The New York Times column from which the Kristof quote comes. They demonstrate the inter-connections between family relationships, child health and development, stress, and poverty. And they all point to signs of hope accompanied by calls to action that have proven impact.
As the legislature continues to debate the budget, necessary increased funding for Reach Out and Read is being considered within the Department of Early Learning's budget. But this could easily get lost within the bigger budget challenges and the larger investments in other efforts. Please urge your legislators to ask budget negotiators to support the increased funding proposed by the Senate. This tiny investment (of $300K per year) is critical to assure that Reach Out and Read, now reaching 20% of the Birth-5 population in Washington, can continue to be part of the solution for a better future.
Jill Sells, MD and the Reach Out and Read Washington Team
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READING ALOUD FROM (PREMATURE) BIRTH
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A family's experience with an extremely premature infant shows the power of reading to support parent-child bonding. The Kaiser Permanente health system in California is a Reach Out and Read leader, embedding Reach Out and Read throughout its medical practices. So it's not surprising that Kaiser is using the program with families of tiny infants in the hospital. Watch this video about Baby Sage, born at 24 weeks and 1 pound-11 ounces.
In five minutes you'll begin to see the tremendous stress a family experiences having such a small child with complex medical needs in the hospital. But the real story is the amazing way that books and reading, combined with the love from the child's family and the compassion and caring provided by the medical staff, mitigate stress and enhance social-emotional development. As Sage's dad says, "What's better than a baby smiling and being happy? In life, there's really not too many things better than that."
In Washington State, Reach Out and Read is being used in several hospital clinics that care for children like Baby Sage. Watch this TV story with Jodi Zaricor, ARNP, from Mary Bridge Hospital to learn more about how Reach Out and Read supports families of premature infants after discharge from the hospital.
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POVERTY'S IMPACT ON HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT
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- Poor children are more likely than other children to be in poor health and to have chronic health conditions
- Poor children are also disproportionately exposed to risks that can impair their brain development
- Poverty in childhood and adolescence is associated with higher risks for poorer academic outcomes, lower school attendance, lower reading and math scores, increased distractibility, and higher rates of grade failure and dropout
When giving more detail about the risk to brain development, she says, "We know that it is important to read to a child every day to support brain development and, yet, about 30 percent of poor children under age three are read to every day, compared with 60 percent of children under three in families with higher incomes."
The good news is that Child Trends notes evidence-based strategies that can help. Ms. Emig notes that there are a number of programs that "help low-income parents build early literacy skills among their young children and narrow the word gap," and specifically highlights Reach Out and Read.
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EARLY CHILDHOOD AS A NON-PARTISAN STRATEGY
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Journalist poses an intriguing rationale for focusing on young children to move education reform forward. In a recent New York Times article Beyond Education Wars, columnist Nicholas Kristof "wonder(s) if the education reform movement hasn't peaked," and makes this suggestion: "Refocus some reformist passions on early childhood."
He provides three reasons:
- There is mounting evidence that early childhood is a crucial period when the brain is most malleable, when interventions are most cost-effective for at-risk kids
- The low-hanging fruit has already been picked in the K-12 world
- Early education is where we have the greatest chance of progress because it's not politically polarized
After explaining some of what has lost momentum in K-12 reform, Mr. Kristof calls out evidenced-based programs including Reach Out and Read as anti-poverty (and education reform) strategies. "Growing evidence suggests what does work to break the poverty cycle: Start early in life, and coach parents to stimulate their children. Randomized controlled trials, the gold standard of evidence, have shown this with programs like Nurse-Family Partnership, Reach Out and Read, and high-quality preschool."
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THANK YOU, PUYALLUP TRIBE OF INDIANS!
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We express our deepest gratitude to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians for their grant of $5,000 to Reach Out and Read. This generous donation will help put thousands of books into the hands of young children and families. Reach Out and Read has been pleased to grow our partnerships with health clinics serving tribal communities over many years. We currently have 16 programs in Indian Health Service and tribal-run clinics, including the Puyallup Tribal Health Authority, Takopid Health Center.
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REACH OUT AND READ WASHINGTON STATE ON FACEBOOK
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Follow Reach Out and Read Washington State on Facebook for early literacy news, reading tips, and brain research information. Please LIKE us and suggest our Facebook page to your friends to help us spread our message about early literacy. Thanks!
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ABOUT REACH OUT AND READ WASHINGTON STATE
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Reach Out and Read helps prepare children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. Our evidence-based proven program leverages the influence of children's doctors and makes literacy a standard part of well-child checkups from birth through 5 years. Reach Out and Read supports parents as their child's first teacher and helps children be ready for kindergarten.
Through 180 programs in 31 counties, 1,500 medical providers serve an estimated 100,000 children and their families across Washington. Reach Out and Read Washington State is a Regional Office of Reach Out and Read, Inc., a national not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Email - washington@reachoutandread.org
Telephone - 206-524-3579
Fax - 206-524-4768
Address - 155 NE 100th Street - Suite 301, Seattle WA 98125
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