The boundless curiosity of nine-month-old Laura Roman was on display in the exam room.
The flower-topped pen. The face of her mother, Karen. The camera and its clicking shutter. They all captivated her – as did the board book from the Busy Baby series given to her to take home by her pediatrician, Kathryn McQuillan, M.D., of The Corvallis Clinic.
Sparking in patients a lifelong love of reading was the goal of McQuillan and her colleagues at The Clinic Pediatrics Department when they became a Reach Out and Read (ROR) site.
“We have been giving out about 50 books per week at well checks to children ages 6 months to 5 years-old since mid-November (2014),” McQuillan said.
McQuillan was first introduced to ROR during her residency at Oregon Health & Science University and participated in the program when she practiced in Wisconsin. “These experiences, plus a personal love for reading, have made me excited to implement the ROR program at The Clinic,” she said. “Our Pediatrics Department decided this would be a fun and important program to bring to our patients.”
Reach Out and Read is a nonprofit organization of medical providers who promote early literacy and school readiness by integrating children’s books and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud into well-child visits. Started in Boston in 1989, ROR is now in all 50 states with almost 1,500 sites distributing 1.6 million books per year.
“Research shows that literacy promotion by pediatricians following the ROR model increases the chances that parents will read aloud to their children and improves the receptive and expressive language scores of children” McQuillan said.
In June 2014, The American Academy of Pediatrics for the first time made an official stand on early literacy when it released a new policy statement that recommended pediatricians and policy makers promote reading aloud to children daily, beginning in infancy.
Screen Time: Less is More
“We have a Thomas (the Tank Engine) book,” answered five-year old Kylie Godard when she and her twin sister, Mylie, were asked by McQuillan if they had a favorite book. “I like that one.”
“We have this one at school,” Mylie said of “The Story of Stone Soup” handed to her by McQuillan, who is also the mother of young children.
McQuillan also uses books as tools to talk about development, bedtime routines, and the importance of reading over screen time.
“Do you have a limit on watching TV and movies?” McQuillan asked the twins. Their mother, Nikki, answered yes and then added: “And a time limit on iPads.”
“Because reading books, talking and singing are better for your brain than just watching TV, right?” McQuillan asked the twins, who smiled and nodded yes.
McQuillan said for someone as young as Laura there really should be no screen time at least until about two years old. “At the early ages,” she said, “we try to promote looking at faces, talking, singing, looking at pictures and other things that stimulate the mind other than a screen.
“(Laura) is at the age where she is going to start being able to identify some words and pictures. She understands a lot more than she can say right now. In the next few months she’ll be able to actually point at things in the books that you ask her about.”
Serving Those At Risk
The ability to read goes beyond just being able to enjoy a good book – it’s also about crime and punishment. As the U.S. Department of Justice stated, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.” In fact, more than 70 percent of inmates in America’s prisons cannot read above a fourth-grade level, according to the department.
As such, the ROR program currently serves more than one-third of all children living in poverty in the United States.
“One of the goals is to reach children who may not otherwise have adequate access to books in their home,” McQuillan said. “In Corvallis we are lucky to serve a diverse population with patients from many different backgrounds. At least 25 percent of our patient population comes from lower socio-economic backgrounds. We believe these children will benefit greatly from the ROR program.”
McQuillan said the reception of the program has been great. “I love opening the well visit with a brand new book,” she said. “It is fun watching the babies ‘taste’ their books and the older kids excitedly page through theirs. The kids are excited to bring home something special, and I am happy to have shared something I love and that is so important for language development.”
