A pilot project starting this Fall will have a number of family doctors and health care professionals gifting a board book to infants and giving their parents a written prescription to ‘read aloud to your child for 15 minutes a day.’ The doctor’s guidance will come through a conversation during the child’s checkup and via take-away information about why reading aloud is important to a child’s development. It will include tips and ideas to help make reading aloud a fun and effective daily family habit.
Why share books with children?
Children who are read to on a regular basis from infancy are better prepared to learn in school and beyond. In fact, the more words that an adult speaks, reads or sings to a child from birth, the better the child’s grasp of language. Building language is the first step toward literacy. Children then learn to read, and later - read to learn!
Reading aloud is critically important to prepare a child for reading and learning
When parents talk, read and sing to their babies and children, they increase the number of words their children hear, and help their brains make neural connections that improve concentration, attention span and memory. And when parents and caregivers directly communicate with children from birth onward, they establish emotional bonds that help their children learn how to trust others and form relationships with people.
Reading books with young children builds brains and bonds! Why have doctors and health professionals share books?
Parents usually see their family doctor or health care practitioner as a valued source of information and support. And doctors also recognize that children’s health checkups are a great opportunity to connect into a family’s day-to-day life. By distributing books to babies and encouraging parents to read, talk and sing to their children from birth, doctors and health care practitioners can support parents in their key role to build their child’s vocabulary and set the foundations for their child’s ability to learn.
There is strong evidence this approach works. The Reach Out and Read model in the US has been operating for more than 20 years. It has trained thousands of health care practitioners and serves 4.2 million children annually. Extensive evaluations show that parents served by Reach Out and Read are up to four times more likely to read aloud to their children. As a result, children served by Reach Out and Read score three to six months ahead of their non-Reach Out and Read peers on vocabulary tests during the preschool years.
The Calgary Reads project
Calgary Reads, an early-literacy initiative (and the convener of this collaborative local pilot), is one of the first international affiliates of Reach Out and Read. We have also partnered with Scholastic Canada. They are providing discounted books to the project so that twice as many parents and children can be reached.
The pilot project will provide books, literacy information, materials (including a reading prescription pad) and training to health partners in several primary care networks in Calgary. Initially, doctors will give Barbara Reid’s Read to Me board book to a child at the beginning of one of their exams between birth and one year. Health care professionals can use this opportunity to begin to observe how well the parent and child interact together and with the book. Parents will be encouraged to share books with their children because they’ve learned that it helps to create emotional bonds, develop language and communication skills, and is fun. As the pilot continues, the intention is to provide doctors with ongoing age-appropriate books and to help them keep up the reading conversation and guidance with parents.
Dr. Nadia Shehata has been involved with Calgary Reads in the planning for the local pilot project and is participating with her patients. “Reading and books are such an integral part of both childhood development and bonding in families. Thanks to the public library and programs like Calgary Reads, books are an inexpensive, educational and exciting way to let kids and their parents be creative and spend quality time together. I firmly believe that it is never too early to start reading
to children.”
Reading-readiness prescription
Tips for helping your child prepare for reading success
Name: ______________________ Date: ____________
Rx
Read to your child as part of your daily routine
Point to words while reading
Name and describe pictures in picture books
Let your child tell the story
Recite nursery rhymes
Sing songs
Have conversations with your child
Encourage writing and drawing
Use a variety of books - picture, story, alphabet, rhyming, counting
Provide plastic or wooden alphabet letters
Calgary Reads builds connections, strengthens networks, champions, involves and innovates - because we all have a role to play in creating a thriving community where all children can read with confidence and joy! Visit the website for videos and resources to help you build the joy of reading in your child at www.calgaryreads.com.
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