Medical squadron opens ‘Reach Out and Read’ program

  • Published
  • By Capt. Laina Eckard
  • 66th Medical Squadron
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Starting Jan. 3, 2011, receiving books from a primary care manager will be a routine part of a Well Child visit at the 66th Medical Squadron. Nurses and primary care managers have welcomed the Reach Out and Read program to the pediatric and family practice clinics.

Reach Out and Read is a simple, yet highly effective program that targets children who may not have adequate exposures to reading and books.

It features three key elements. Volunteers read with children in waiting areas, primary care managers educate parents about the importance of reading with their children every day and, when children from the age of six months to five years come in for a Well Child exam, they receive a new book to take home and keep.

"Giving a book to a young child, along with age appropriate advice about sharing books for the parents, may be the only concrete activity a pediatrician can routinely do to promote child development," said Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Reach Out and Read co-founder and chief of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine.

Medical research supports that literacy promoting interventions by the primary care managers have a significant effect on parental behaviors, beliefs and attitudes toward reading aloud. For more than a decade, studies have proven that parents who receive books and literacy counseling from their medical providers are more likely to read to their young children, read to them more often and provide more books in the home.

Additionally, several studies have also shown improvements in the language scores of young children receiving Reach Out and Read.

The staff at the 66th Medical Squadron is very excited about the new process improvement program.

"Reach out and Read is a fabulous federally funded program that allows families to bond, especially during stressful times of increased deployments," said April Cardona, the clinic's pediatric nurse.

The 66th Medical Squadron joins 44 military bases and 4,600 clinics across the nation that are working to make books a part of a healthy childhood. Reach Out and Read will serve more than 90,000 children of U.S. military families worldwide.

For more information about Reach Out and Read or to become a volunteer reader, contact Staff Sgt. Richard Laflamme, Reach Out and Read coordinator for the pediatric clinic, at 781-377-8351.