REACH OUT AND READ
Reach Out and Read prepares America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together.
Who We Are
Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based nonprofit that trains and supports medical providers who give books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud at well-child exams.
We build on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers to develop essential early literacy skills in young children via the existing health care infrastructure. Each year, Reach Out and Read serves more than 4 million children across 50 state.
What We Do
During regular pediatric checkups, Reach Out and Read pediatricians, family physicians, and nurse practitioners give new developmentally appropriate books to children, ages 6 months through 5 years, and advise parents about the importance of reading aloud.
As a result evidence-based intervention, parents learn new ways to stimulate their children’s literacy development, have more books in their home, and read to their children more. Parents are supported as their children’s first and most important teachers, and children grow up to become readers.
The first five years of life offer a critical window for learning, with rapid brain development that does not occur at any other time. Many children are not read to from birth. Children who grow up without sufficient exposure to language arrive at school without basic literacy skills, and often struggle with reading in early grades.
Reach Out and Read delivers results. Our program is a proven intervention, supported by 15 independent, published research studies. During the preschool years, children served by Reach Out and Read score three to six months ahead of their non-Reach Out and Read peers on vocabulary tests, preparing them to start school on target.
Reach Out and Read medical providers work with families to prepare all children to enter kindergarten ready to read, learn, and succeed. Research shows that children who start school on track are more likely to reach their full educational, social, and life potential.
THE ANNUAL IMPACT:
4 MILLION CHILDREN SERVED. 6.5 MILLION BOOKS DISTRIBUTED . 20 THOUSAND MEDICAL PROVIDERS. 5 THOUSAND PROGRAM SITES. 50 STATES AND D.C.