Brewer Participates in Reach Out and Read Program
State Senator Brewer Reads Aloud to Young Children at Barre Family Health Center in Support of Reach Out and Read
(Barre, MA) January 22, 2010 – Medical providers at Barre Family Health Center are sending their youngest patients home with free books and important advice for their parents – “Read to your children every day.” Today, State Senator Stephen Brewer (D-Barre) visited the health center and read to a group of young children, emphasizing the importance of reading aloud.
Barre Family Health Center, which is part of the UMass Memorial Health Care System, participates in Reach Out and Read (ROR), a national children’s literacy program that focuses on young children at risk of entering school unprepared to learn. At every checkup, clinicians in ROR guide and encourage parents to read aloud to their young children every day, and give each child a carefully-selected new, developmentally-appropriate book. By the time that child enters school, he or she will have a home library of up to 10 books.
Reach Out and Read has one of the strongest records of research support of any school readiness intervention. Studies show that parents who get books and counseling on reading aloud from their doctors and nurses are more likely to read to their young children, read to them more often, and provide more books in the home. Children exposed to Reach Out and Read show improved language development, giving a child as young as 2 years old a six-month head start developmentally.
The program has gained broad bipartisan support on Beacon Hill, and has received state funding since 2000. "I commend the doctors, nurses, and staff at Barre Family Health Center for their outstanding advocacy on behalf of children’s literacy," said Senator Brewer. "Reading to infants, toddlers, and young children every day is a critically important component of early childhood development and contributes greatly to a child's ability to arrive at school ready to learn and achieve. Reach Out and Read distributes hundreds of thousands of books to children in our state each year in support of this worthy goal, and I am proud to support this outstanding program."
Barre Family Health Center is one of 8 ROR Programs in Senator Brewer’s district that participate in Reach Out and Read, providing books to more than 1,800 children annually. Reach Out and Read serves children at 245 locations across Massachusetts, reaching more than 177,000 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers each year.
Nationally, tens of thousands of doctors this year will give 6 million new books to 3.8 million low-income families at more than 4,535 healthcare locations nationwide. Reach Out and Read serves about 25 percent of America’s at-risk infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Since it was founded in 1989, Reach Out and Read has trained more than 52,000 doctors and nurses who have given over 20 million books to children in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. International programs modeled on Reach Out and Read have been started in Bangladesh, Italy, Israel, the Philippines, England, and Canada. For more information, please visit www.reachoutandread.org.
Posted: Mon, Jan 25, 2010
Updated Mon, Jan 25, 2010