Read More! It’s the Doctor’s Orders

June 26, 2011

For my last session today, I attended “Reach Out and Read: How Libraries Can Work with Doctors Who ‘Prescribe Reading’ to Achieve Common Goals.” I am not a children’s librarian, and I am definitely not a doctor, but I was interested in this session because it brought in perspectives from outside of the library world and I was curious to see how doctors and librarians could work together.

The two program speakers, Dipesh Navsaria who has his MSLIS along with an MD and practices pediatric medicine, and Christine Caputo, MSLS and assistant chief officer of public support at the Free Library of Philadelphia, educated the audience on the Reach out and Read program.

The program, which was founded over 20 years ago, aims to prepare America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together.

Now this is probably not a case that needed to be made to a room full of librarians, but Dr. Navsaria did provide some staggering statistics as to why early reading is so vital: “Reach out and Read costs you $50 a year, reading recovery programs in schools cost $500–$5,000 a year, and juvenile detention programs cost many thousands more.”

After about an hour of impressive statistics and videos and case studies, we were put to work. We broke up into groups of 3 or 4 and brainstormed ideas about how libraries might get more involved with this program. There were lots of wonderful and innovative thoughts coming out of the groups. This is just a taste of what the attendees came up with.

  1. Volunteer to read a book out loud in the waiting room. Not only will the kids be entertained, but parents and caretakers will get a great demonstration on how to read aloud to children.
  2. Put up a picture of the local children’s librarian. During the wellness check, doctors should encourage parents and children to go see their friendly librarian.
  3. Assist the doctor’s office or the local Reach Out and Read headquarters with choosing titles. Who know what books are best for kids learning to read than we do?

These are just a few of the ideas that were tossed around, but you can visit the Reach Out and Read website for more best practices and statistics on the importance of early childhood literacy.

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