Group encourages parents to read to their children

Every parent of a young child should resolve to do one simple thing in 2009 that can change his or her life – read to the child every day. Reading to young children is proven to be the single most important thing a parent can do to ensure his child's success in school. Not only does reading improve children's language development — the strongest predictor of school success — it also brings parents and children closer together.

Yet, a study conducted for Reach Out and Read shows that fewer than half of American parents read to their children daily. Young children who are not read to are at the highest risk of reading below grade level once they begin school. More than a third of American children start kindergarten without the basic literacy skills they need to learn to read.

Fortunately, Reach Out and Read, a program proven to increase the number of parents who read to their youngest children daily, has expanded quickly in Utah. Reach Out and Read partners with doctors to give free books to children and reading advice to parents during pediatric visits at the critical stage before children enter kindergarten.

Reach Out and Read focuses on the children at greatest risk — children ages 6 months to 5 years living at or near poverty. Doctors distribute brand-new, developmentally appropriate books, starting with board books for babies and moving on to picture books that are more complex for preschoolers. Bilingual books are available in 12 languages. Each child who participates in Reach Out and Read starts kindergarten with a home library of up to 10 books and a parent who has heard at every regular checkup about the importance of books and reading.

Parents who get books and literacy advice from their doctors are scientifically proven to be up to four times more likely to read to their young children, read to them more often, and provide more books in their homes. By utilizing the existing health-care system to deliver books and literacy counseling, we can help ensure that every parent reads to his child every day and that every child enters school ready to learn.

This year, Utah's Reach Out and Read doctors will provide more than 91,000 new books to more than 46,000 children at their pediatric checkups. Reach Out and Read's 32 clinics are located throughout Utah.

Nationwide, 3.5 million at-risk children — including 25 percent of the United States' most impoverished tots — will receive 5.7 million Reach Out and Read books at 4,121 sites this year. Reach Out and Read, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2009, has distributed more than 20 million books.

Reach Out and Read is proud to help so many of America's children grow up with books and a love of reading, but it is critical that we redouble our efforts in the new year to reach even more families. Please join us as we encourage every parent to resolve in 2009 to read to their young children daily so youngsters can enter school prepared to succeed.

Wendy Hobson Rohrer, MD, MSPH, is a medical director with Reach Out and Read Utah