Literacy Program for Children Gains Popularity in Colorado
Monday, July 11th, 2011Literacy program for children gains popularity in Colorado health clinics
ByColleenO’Connor TheDenverPost
Read more:Literacy program for children gains popularity in Colorado health clinics - The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_18355318#ixzz1RjVND0f8
Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content:http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
This summer, 1 million brand-new books will be given to children during health clinic visits across the United States. The goal is to hook kids under age 5 on a lifelong passion for books and create a solid foundation for reading success in elementary school.
But the 20-year-old program has another fringe benefit: The parents of Colorado kids who get a book during their checkups are more likely to make sure their children regularly visit the doctor, a survey of program participants shows.
The national nonprofit Reach Out and Read expects to hand out about 25,600 books daily until International Literacy Day, Sept. 8. The child-literacy organization started at what is now Boston Medical Center and came to Colorado in 1997 after a pediatrician at Denver Health heard about the success Boston doctors had with “prescribing” books to kids who visited their offices for checkups.
“It grew very grassroots across the state as providers heard about it,” said Megan Wilson, executive director of Reach Out and Read Colorado. “Expansion in the rural parts of the state has been tremendous, and the need has been tremendous. In some communities where we’ve started, there have been no other resources for young children to get new, high-quality books.”
In Colorado, the number of clinics distributing books has increased to 168 from 53 in the past five years. More than 143,000 books from Scholastic are given out each year.
“She always asks for books every time we come,” said Laura Atkins of her daughter, Heaveneiya, 3, during a visit to Doctors Care in Littleton, which has served more than 20,000 uninsured or underinsured patients since 1988.
Heaveneiya received her first book from the doctor at 6 months old, and her frequent request - “Mommy, read me this book!” - has strengthened the mother-daughter bond.
“We get busy as parents, but this helps to sit down with them and a book, even if it’s just five minutes,” said Atkins, watching her daughter sitting on the exam table, avidly flipping the pages of her new book. “They enjoy it, and it helps them learn, to hear the words pronounced.”
Doctors Care has two floor-to-ceiling closets stocked with age-appropriate books, in English and Spanish, including such classics as “Goodbye Moon” and “Curious George.”
Practitioners hand out a book at the start of a visit, and talk with parents about reading’s importance to a child’s overall development.
To understand how parents were affected by the program, Reach Out and Read Colo -rado last year hired a public-education consultant to conduct a survey involving 207 parents and 49 medical practitioners.
While the majority (96 percent) said the children were happy to receive the gift of a book, differences were found between English-speaking and Spanish-speaking families.
Forty-three percent of Spanish-speaking families reported that a parent often reads to a child, compared with 73 percent of English-speaking families. English-speaking families said obstacles included a lack of time, or the energy required to get a child to pay attention, while Spanish-speaking families more often cited limited ability to buy or access books, and difficulty reading English.
One hundred percent of Spanish-speaking parents said their child looked forward to getting a book, compared to 75 percent of English-speaking parents.
Seventy percent of Spanish-speaking parents said they were more likely to go to their next well-child visit because their child will receive a book, compared with 48 percent of English speakers.
Reach Out and Read Colorado raises 65 percent of its own funds, gets about 25 percent from the national organization, and clinics pay for about 10 percent. But earlier this year, the national organization had lost its federal funding - about $6 million - because of severe budget cuts.
“We in Colorado are stepping up funding,” said Wilson, “so the clinics won’t notice.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 orcoconnor@…
——————————————-
Yvonne Siu-Runyan
Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.
– W. B. Yeats
It is books that are the key to the wide world; if you can’t do anything else, read all that you can.
– Jane Hamilton
——————————————-
Back To Top
Discussion Home
Reply to Discussion
Reply to Sender
Post Message
Forward Message
Print Message
iew Thread
Author’s Messages
Next Message
