Reach Out and Read

Every year, thirty-five percent of American children start school without the language skills necessary to learn to read.

Reach Out and Read (ROR), a national non-profit - making books a routine part of pediatric care, is helping bring children’s books into the waiting rooms of pediatricians and the lives of young parents. This is the success story of a public-private partnership that has assisted primary care pediatric practices make literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric care, so that children grow up with books and a love of reading. 

In 2007, Reach Out and Read New Jersey was established as state wide coalition with a mission to expand services to more children throughout communities in New Jersey. Our goal is to target at-risk areas so that more children start kindergarten in New Jersey with the pre-literacy skills they need to succeed in the classroom – thus improving the learning environment – and the educational outcomes for all the children in our schools.

The Crucial Difference

Early literacy can make a crucial difference.  For instance, we know that reading to a child from birth helps develop better social and academic skills upon entering school and leads to greater confidence and achievement.  This is important information for young parents and there are few people better placed to reinforce early literacy than the pediatrician
Research shows that ROR works.  It works because parents are at the center of this effort and it matches their aspirations for their children to be healthy and succeed.  It also works because the advice comes from a trusted source, their child’s physician and takes advantage of each regularly scheduled well child visit from six months to five years to provide parents with advice and a free book.

Endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Reach Out and Read has one of the strongest records of research support of any primary care intervention.  Studies show that parents that get books and literacy counseling from their doctors and nurses are more likely to read to their young children, read to them more often, and provide more books in the home.  Low-income children exposed to Reach Out and Read show improvements in language development, a critical component of school readiness.   

News!

Reach Out and Read New Jersey receives $10,000 special grant from Novo Nordisk....read more

Book Drive Honor Roll

Reach Out and Read New Jersey would like to thank all of our book drives by adding them to our new Book Drive Honor Roll!

Founded in 1989 at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), Reach Out And Read programs are now located in almost 3,000 pediatric practices, hospitals, clinics and health centers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the virgin Islands.