Reach Out and Read Program Promotes Literacy

by Bailey Basham, Messenger Intern
Nearly 100 new books have been joined with the hands of young children in the Sewanee area over the last three months thanks to a program called Reach Out and Read.
Reach Out and Read partnered with the Sewanee Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine clinic in May of this year to promote literacy on the Mountain in lower income areas.
Each year, Reach Out and Read serves 4.5 million children across all 50 states, focusing on those in low-income families. According to the organization’s website, Reach Out and Read’s purpose is to give “young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.”
For children ages 6 months to 6 years, a well child check-up at Sewanee Pediatrics begins with a new book.
“It makes for a very lovely start to a visit because they’re handling the book and turning the pages. Their eyes light up, and then they take the book home and start building their library,” said Evans. “They love them, and they learn at an early age that getting new books and reading is a pleasurable thing. I think parents also learn how important it is to be their children’s first teacher. If we wait until they’re 3-years-old we’ve missed three opportune years to teach children.”
Jesse Bornemann, Senior Grants and Development Associate for Reach Out and Read and wife of the clinic’s nurse practitioner Eric Bornemann, said promotion for early literacy could have positive results in the future.
“Our evidence base of 16 peer-reviewed research studies shows that 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,” said Bornemann. “Reach Out and Read does have a measurable, long-term impact on children’s language development, and parents are up to four times more likely to read aloud with their children when they engage in the program. The parental engagement leads children to make developmental gains, have larger vocabularies and really be prepared for school.”
More immediate benefits are helping a child build their own home library and love of books and reading.
“From the first day of life, babies love to hear their mother’s and father’s voices. Even if they’re not understanding the words, they love to hear their voices,” said Amy Evans, board-certified pediatrician at Sewanee Pediatrics. “When parents read to their children in the early months and years, their children hear more words, develop a larger vocabulary and have less behavioral problems. The earlier we start reading to children, the better. This simple gesture of giving a child a book may help to encourage life long learning.”
Reach Out and Read partners with several national book publishers and sellers, with one of its biggest partners being Scholastic. Funding for Sewanee’s branch of the program does not come from the organization, however.
“The books are ordered through Reach Out and Read’s national office from the Scholastic catalog and then supplied to the clinic. All of the books currently are coming from a memorial donation from my dad, Hank Haines. He passed away earlier this year, so the memorial donations were designated for book purchases for the clinic.”
For Bornemann, the personal connection to early literacy began when she was a child.
“My parents read to me regularly when I was growing up, and my mom and I even read together through middle and high school. It had a real influence on my career track and my current love of books and reading,” said Bornemann. “I read ‘Charlotte’s Web’ with my mom when I was younger, and I just reread it earlier this year because I remembered that I love the characters so much. Sometimes I revisit favorite books from my childhood, and of course I’m doing that a lot more now that I have a young child. I’m hoping that some of those books will be my son Hank’s favorites too.”
Sewanee Pediatrics wants to enhance the Reach Out and Read program with community volunteers. Any community member interested in reading to children in the reception area may contact office manager Rhonda Henry 598-9761.