WASHINGTON — Pediatricians offer guidance on everything from vaccinations to car seats. Now, they’re urging parents to read aloud to their children from the time they are infants.
The new policy adopted by the American Academy of Pediatrics builds on existing programs to get books into the hands of little kids, and reading guidance to their moms and dads.
Reach Out and Read, a national non- profit, has been involved in the effort for 25 years, providing doctors’ offices, clinics and hospitals with storybooks for children ages six months to five years.
“Now we are taking this to a really great, exciting new step,” says Reach Out and Read Spokeswoman Judith Forman.
Research points to the importance of parents reading to their kids starting at a very early age as their young brains develop.
Forman says “the first thousand days of life for a child set the foundation for success in school and in life in general.”
This is the first time the Academy has weighed in on the issue of early literacy, treating it as a critical health topic. Forman says the doctors are ideal advocates, since 97 percent of American children see a pediatrician for regular health care, and parents see them as trusted advisors. She says the reading aloud program shows the Academy has moved from a focus on physical health, to a child’s whole health.
Reach Out and Read already has 29 locations in the Washington, D.C. area, serving more than 26,000 children and distributing about 34,000 new books. The local program is designed to reach kids from low income communities. But Forman says the message about the importance of reading is for all parents.
“Some parents don’t have time to read because they are juggling multiple jobs,” she says. “But there are just as many parents that are distracted by technology.”
The goal now, according to Forman, is to remind parents to slow down and savor moments spent reading and exploring books with their kids.
Forman says the bottom line for all parents is the same: To become their child’s “first, and most important, teacher.”
Other partners in the reading campaign include the Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail program and Scholastic Inc., a major publisher of children’s books.
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