Pediatricians encourage early literacy

In a world filled with advanced medical devices, cutting-edge research, and innovative medications, it may seem surprising that one of the most useful tools in pediatrics is a children's book.

As pediatricians, we take care of children's physical, social, cognitive and emotional health. One of our biggest concerns is when we see children who fail educationally - not just in high school or middle school, but in their elementary years.

When we delve into their struggles with learning, we often discover that their achievement gap stems from environmental influences in the first 1,000 days of life.

Shockingly, children in poverty hear 30 million fewer words than their more financially advantaged peers by age 4. This staggering gap means children are less ready when they enter kindergarten, leading to poor learning in grade school. However, traditional exam room approaches are not enough.

The task at hand is significant: address the factors in a child's early life that influence the achievement gap; intentionally and efficiently build the capacity and capabilities of parents to be their child's first teacher; scale it effectively and inexpensively across broad populations; and incorporate it into the ever-tighter time frame of the well-child visit. Fortunately, a solution was developed 25 years ago. Today it takes a new step forward.

Through the national Reach Out and Read program, established in 1989, pediatricians promote sharing books with children from their earliest months to stimulate a love of reading, enhance parent-child relationships and prepare children for success in school.

The simple yet powerful model accomplishes this through early literacy assessment and promotion. At every checkup, starting in infancy and continuing until at least school-age, pediatricians give out a brand-new, developmentally, culturally and language-appropriate book to the child. The provider then discusses early literacy practices and shared reading in the home, models behavior and assesses for potential barriers.

Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a landmark policy statement calling on pediatricians to promote reading aloud to children every day, starting in infancy.

The recommendations represent the organization's first official policy calling on both pediatricians and policymakers to make books available for families, especially for those living in poverty.

At the Clinton Global Initiatives America's annual meeting in Denver last week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the impact of the policy statement on children's development and unveiled a new partnership between the American Academy of Pediatrics, Too Small to Fail, the Clinton Foundation, Reach Out and Read, and Scholastic Inc.

To jump start the project, Scholastic will donate 500,000 books to Reach Out and Read for distribution to families most in need.

Promoting children's literacy will require work and commitment by the health care community, education, government and industry, but the solution is not all that complicated. It's as simple as helping parents open a book and share it with their child.

' Amy Shriver, a pediatrician at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines, is medical director for Reach Out and Read Iowa. Dipesh Navsaria of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is medical director for Reach Out and Read Wisconsin. Contact: amy.shriver@unitypoint.org