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Reach Out and Read gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together. We strive to reduce the opportunity gap; to create a world where family income, race and geography are no longer predictors of kindergarten readiness and school success. We contribute to this societal change by partnering with medical clinics that serve low-income households, families of color, families who speak a home language other than English and other historically marginalized groups. Our pediatric medical providers work to ensure that all children of all ethnicities have access to children's books and that their parents are supported in their role as their child's first and most important teacher. Reach Out and Read is based around a simple yet powerful model of prescribing shared reading to foster language-rich interactions between parents and children. The intervention builds upon the special relationship between medical providers and parents of young children at small community health centers, inner city clinics, large urban teaching hospitals, county clinics, and private practices. Children routinely see their doctors for well-child visits 14 times from birth through 5-years. For many families, especially families living in poverty, these are the earliest, and often the only, regular contacts with a child development professional. Beginning at birth, our medical providers coach parents during infant, toddler and preschool well-child visits about the critical role that reading aloud and telling stories should play in their daily routine with their children. At the beginning of the visit, the child receives a new book to take home and build their home library. Books are chosen to be developmentally, linguistically, and culturally appropriate. Following their medical provider’s advice, parents read aloud with their children more often and their children enter kindergarten prepared to read and succeed in school and beyond. We offer specific initiatives designed to support the unique needs of the diverse populations we serve including Developmental Disabilities, Leyendo Juntos (Reading Together), Reach Out and Read Counts, Military, and American Indian/Alaska Native. More information on our special initiatives can be found at https://www.reachoutandread.org/what-we-do/initiatives/

Annual Impact:
4.2 million children served
7 million new books distributed
33,000 medical providers participating
6,100 program sites in all 50 states and D.C.

Reach Out and Read is the only national early literacy organization working directly with pediatric care providers to share the lifelong benefits that result from families reading aloud to their children every day. We know that nurturing, language-rich interactions like reading aloud together give young children a foundation for success. By integrating these experiences into pediatric care and providing the tools and encouragement families need to read aloud together, we are transforming pediatric care practices and giving children of all backgrounds and means a better start to life.

The Reach Out and Read model of literacy promotion and family engagement consists of three key elements:

1. Primary care providers (Doctors, NPs and PAs) are trained to deliver anticipatory literacy guidance to parents and caregivers of children from infancy through 5 years of age during each well-child visit. This age-appropriate guidance centers on the importance of elements such as frequent and early exposure to language, looking at board books and naming pictures with infants, rhyme, and repetition for gaining phonemic awareness during toddlerhood, and reading interactively (such as asking open-ended questions) when reading with preschoolers. Providers also use this opportunity to model reading aloud and introduce it as another way to support positive interactions between caregiver and child.

2. The medical provider starts the visit by giving the child a new, developmentally, linguistically and culturally appropriate book to take home, building the child's home library. The book also gives the doctor a unique evaluative tool, allowing assessment of the child’s development by her ability to turn pages, recognize numbers and letters, and engage in other age-appropriate reading activities. Our titles are vetted through our Book Committee led by our Director of National Book Strategy. We know that building a home library is extremely important as research demonstrates that children growing up with books in the home go further in school than their peers who grow up without books, so we make an intentional effort to provide high-quality new books to build that home library.

3. Reach Out and Read sites also create literacy-rich environments that may include gently used books for waiting room use or for siblings to take home. In some waiting rooms, Reach Out and Read volunteers model for parents the pleasures and techniques of reading aloud with very young children.

Our program is individualized to each family to support equity, diversity, and inclusion—it is not "one size fits all." Although the basic framework of our intervention is consistent, our providers are trained to understand and meet the unique needs of each child and family, just as they do when addressing other aspects of health and development.

As noted above, we offer specific initiatives designed to support providers in meeting the unique needs of the diverse populations they serve, including Developmental Disabilities, Leyendo Juntos (Reading Together), Reach Out and Read Counts, Military and American Indian/Alaska Native.

Reach Out and Read has demonstrated that reading aloud with infants and toddlers connects to the most significant parts of a child’s development. Shared reading provides children with a fertile learning environment—encouraging curiosity and imagination. It also promotes resilience and mitigates toxic stress. Reach Out and Read starts with early literacy, but naturally extends to social-emotional development, motivation, persistence, confidence, and so much more.

Our program has been the subject of 19 independent research studies, the largest body of scientific research for any psychosocial intervention in pediatrics, showing that children served by Reach Out and Read are read to more often, have more books in their home, and enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies, stronger language skills, and a greater affinity towards books and reading.

Since its inception, Reach Out and Read has had the continued support of the AAP. However, in 2014, the AAP issued its very first policy statement surrounding books and literacy, Literacy Promotion: An Essential Component of Primary Care Pediatric Practice. In this landmark policy statement, the AAP cited the body of research on Reach Out and Read in calling on pediatric care providers to promote literacy, beginning in infancy. According to the AAP, “Research, in summary, shows that in populations at risk, participation in the [Reach Out and Read] intervention is associated with markedly more positive attitudes toward reading aloud, more frequent reading aloud by parents, improved parent-child interactions, improvements in the home literacy environment, and significant increases in expressive and receptive language in early childhood.” Through this policy statement, the AAP recommends that books and literacy be an essential component of primary care pediatric practice for all children. We are also honored to have Mark Del Monte, JD, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President of the AAP on our National Board of Directors.

In addition to the endorsement of the AAP, our model is endorsed by the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), and we have an alliance with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP); both organizations advise and support the use of our model by their members.

Reach Out and Read was an inaugural Bright Spot in the National Campaign for Grade Level Reading for Promoting School Readiness. We continue to be recognized as a Bright Spot of the Campaign.

Other awards, endorsements and recognitions include: the 2013 American Hospital Association Award of Honor “to recognize an exemplary contribution to the health and well-being of the people through leadership on a major health policy or social initiative;” the 2013 David M. Rubenstein Prize from the Library of Congress for its “groundbreaking advancement of literacy;” and the 2014 Carle Angel Honor for its “tireless promotion of early literacy and school readiness.” Reach Out and Read was cited in A Path Appears (2014) by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn as “an excellent example of a cost-effective, evidence-based program that helps kids in a crucial window of development.” We were also selected as a winner of Nicholas Kristof’s 2019 Holiday Impact Prize, supported by Focusing Philanthropy.

Giving books should be as routine as giving immunizations. With your help, we can forge a path to academic, social-emotional and life success for all children, regardless of their race, income or geography. Thank you.

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