| Children receiving routine physicals at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and St. ChrisCare in Center City are leaving with a treat much more valuable and long-lasting than a lollipop. In February, the hospital began participating in “Reach Out and Read,” a national program which engages pediatricians in promoting literacy.
This intervention starts in the waiting room where a volunteer reads aloud to the children, showing parents and children the pleasure and techniques of reading aloud to their children. At the beginning of the visit every child between the age of six months and five years gets a present: a brand new, culturally and developmentally appropriate book to take home. This allows the pediatrician ample time to talk to parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children.
Pediatrician Dan Taylor, DO, and Senior Resident Glen Frick, MD, PhD, coordinated the hospital’s participation in “Reach Out and Read.”
“From the first week of the program, we saw wonderful effects,” Dr. Taylor says. “One three-year old who was leaving the office showed off his new book to each of the nurses at the nurse’s station, all of the families in the waiting room, and even the doctor who was coming out of the elevator. The mother of a 15-month old girl told us that the book we gave her daughter was only the second book her child had ever received.”
To emphasize that reading benefits the entire family, doctors keep books on hand to share with older siblings and patients over five years of age. They also provide information and referrals for parents who need help improving reading skills.
“We look at this as a way of inoculating children against future literacy problems,” says Dr. Taylor. “This is definitely the least painful and most appreciated vaccination I give.” |