For Patients and Families

Reach Out and Read

Reach Out and Read is a national program designed to promote early literacy skills and school readiness within primary care settings.

The Reach Out and Read model has three components:

• At each check-up between the ages of 6 months and 5 years, children receive a brand new, developmentally, and culturally appropriate book from their primary care provider to take home.
• Physicians and nurses are trained in literacy development to provide parents with guidance and support around the importance of reading to their children.
• Volunteers read aloud to children in the clinic waiting room and demonstrate appropriate reading techniques and modeling for parents.

Reach Out and Read at Children's Primary Care Clinic

Reach Out and Read was an important addition to the Children's Hospital Primary Care Center (CHPCC) in 1997. Since that time, more than 700 providers have been trained in literacy development by a ROR medical director.

We have also provided approximately 53,000 brand new books to our patients since the program's inception, and an additional 765,000 gently used books through donations.