From the Desk of MID-VALLEY Healthy MOM Dr. Illana
Dickson
Reach Out and
Read:
A program that promotes early
literacy at pediatric offices nationwide by giving new books to
children and advice to parents about the importance of reading
aloud.
Program launch at
Samaritan Pediatrics, the only
participating program in Benton County, on Friday November
5th, 4-6 pm, in the Samaritan Pediatrics
waiting room (Samaritan Professional Center, 3517 NW Samaritan
Drive, Suite C).
Cake and punch will be provided;
Tips on reading aloud will be
demonstrated by volunteer readers,
And OSU's
Benny
Beaver will be present from 4-5 pm.
A few facts from Reach Out and
Read program website:
There is a crisis in the public
education system in our country. More than one-third of
American children enter kindergarten without the basic language
skills they will need to learn to read. Those critical
early literacy skills include recognizing the letters of the
alphabet, understanding that books move from left to right, and
being able to understand and tell stories.
Despite the billions of dollars Americans have invested in
remedial reading programs, those millions of children who enter
school unprepared are highly likely to never catch up. In
fact, 88% of first graders who are below grade level in reading
will continue to read below grade level in fourth grade.
(Juel, 1988) And reading difficulty contributes to school failure,
which increases the risk of absenteeism, dropping out, juvenile
delinquency, substance abuse, and teenage pregnancy - all of which
perpetuate the cycles of poverty and dependency.
The answer is to "immunize" children against illiteracy in the
critical years before they enter school, when interventions can
have the most dramatic impact. In fact, Nobel Prize-winning
economist James J. Heckman found that economic returns on
dollars invested in early education are as high as 15-17% per
year - higher than other traditional economic development
strategies.
Reach Out and Read promotes early literacy and school
readiness with a research-tested, evidence-based model that's
proven to help children develop the language skills they will need
to learn to read and succeed in school.
There are currently 4,654 Reach Out and Read Programs in
U.S.* and so far 6.4 million books have been distributed
to 3.9 million children
For more info on Reach Out and Read
go to their website at www.reachoutandread.org
