Wearing nothing but a blue hospital gown and a diaper, 2-year-old Darious Melton clutched a book about polar bears as he waited to be examined at La Rabida Children’s Hospital on Chicago’s South Side.
A victim of severe asthma, he arrived with his grandmother for a checkup. In addition to providing medical advice and a breathing treatment, his doctor gave him the book–one of several the boy has received from the La Rabida staff.
“A lot of clinics give out lollipops,” said Melanie Miller, Darious’ pediatrician. “We’re lucky enough to give out books.”
At La Rabida and other hospitals in the Chicago area, doctors are “prescribing” reading as a part of the treatment program for infants and toddlers. The doctors view reading as essential to both the mental and physical development of newborns, particularly those in low-income families.
The doctors are following a model called Reach Out and Read, a national program developed in part by Chicago native Robert Needlman, a pediatrician at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.
Evanston Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove also have similar programs. At least 16 other hospitals and clinics–including Cook County Children’s Hospital and the University of Illinois Medical Center–are about to begin programs or are awaiting grant money. The Chicago-based Irving Harris Foundation is distributing more than $100,000 in grants this fall to help start those programs.
Developed eight years ago by Needlman and two other doctors at Boston Medical Center, Reach Out and Read is now in 130 hospitals nationwide, officials said. Last year, the program was embraced by Hillary Clinton.
The program is grounded on a premise backed by research that the benefits of engaging children in reading from a very young age will pay off greatly in the long run. Not only do doctors believe a healthy child has a healthy state of mind, but they also see their offices as a place where young children–particularly impoverished ones–can jump-start their educations and take to reading long before setting foot in a classroom.
By age 5, many children will have seen a doctor a dozen times for routine appointments, not to mention other visits for ailments. Those visits, say physicians, provide a golden opportunity.
“Parents come to pediatricians expecting advice about children,” said Needlman. “They listen to what we say because we’re the experts.”
His early research on the program appears to support that. In a 1991 study of 79 low-income families in Boston, parents who received the free books had a more positive perception of their children’s appreciation for books.
“If parents were given books by a pediatrician, they were four times more likely to report that their children loved looking at books,” he said. “When a baby gets excited by a book, moms universally understand that must mean `my kid is smart.’ “
Needlman is now conducting a longer-term study of 300 children to determine whether the program improves their language abilities.
Part of the program calls for nudging parents–many of whom may not have been read to when they were young–to read to their children. Miller said she constantly tells parents that it is all right for their little ones to chew and rip pages, read only part of a story or a page out of order, or read the same story over and over.
Proponents say the program can have an even more profound effect on low-income families that have higher illiteracy rates and have difficulty affording books.
At Cook County Children’s Hospital, coordinators say that such a program could reach several thousand children annually.
“This is especially important here because literacy levels are lower in the population that needs to come to Cook County Hospital,” said Philip Ziring, chairman of the hospital’s Department of Pediatrics. “We are trying to get kids ready to go to school.”
That a hospital would see itself as a step in a child’s education process is somewhat new for many doctors.
Although pediatricians have embraced the program, giving advice on reading–in addition to advice on treating a sickness– constitutes a culture change for rushed doctors who worry foremost about a child’s physical health. For that reason, many of the hospitals launching the programs are also training centers, like Cook County.
“The focus is so often limited to treating the sick child for an infectious illness,” said Ziring. “This will broaden their approach to caring for children.”
Because kids often spend an hour or more waiting to see the doctor, the program also calls for bringing in volunteers to read to the children while they are in waiting rooms. Supporters say this further piques a child’s interest in books and provides an example for parents.
And because many hospitals have stopped providing toys in waiting rooms because of the potential for spreading illness, books can be a substitute.
Ronna Jacobson, who coordinates the program at Evanston Hospital, said the volunteers show parents how easy and rewarding it is to read to a child for a short time each day.
“So many parents didn’t have the modeling of sitting on their parent’s lap for a story, and what that felt like to be so close.” Jacobson said. “This works because they can see it feels good to the child, and that feels good to the parent.”
In the La Rabida asthma clinic, the waiting area resembles a children’s library, with books strewn atop a junior-size table. Children sit at the table and page through picture books while listening to Gwen Williams, a retired Chicago Public Schools teacher and librarian, reading from a book about turtles.
“It’s very calming,” Williams said, telling how she has cheered up frightened, sick children when even their parents couldn’t. “They’re usually very happy when we’re done.”
Tiffany Perez, 8, a patient at La Rabida since age 3, was able to hear two stories while waiting.
“She loves reading–its her favorite thing,” said her mother, Ida. “She loves coming here. We set up an appointment and she doesn’t mind.”
Needlman said the program won’t immunize kids against academic failure. But he said it can help children “hit the ground running.”
“When they go to school, if they already have an emotional connection to books, those kids are much more likely to actually learn how to read than kids who don’t have that connection.”
