Reach Out and Read, Inc

Mission

Our mission is to strengthen all families with young children through guidance from medical clinicians about nurturing relationships through shared reading.

Reach Out and Read gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.

Doctors across Washington give children new, developmentally- and culturally appropriate books as they teach families how cuddling and reading with their infants, toddlers, and preschoolers helps them be ready for kindergarten and creates strong parent-child bonds that promote healthy development and resiliency as a child grows.

Description

At Reach Out and Read, we believe all families should have the tools and information they need to make reading aloud a daily routine. We help integrate reading into pediatric practices, advise families about the importance of reading with their children, and share books that serve as a catalyst for healthy childhood development.

Reach Out and Read is a family-based program that partners with doctors to help parents and guardians engage in their child's early learning, as their child's most important teacher. Young children and families receive a brand-new, high quality book, and parents receive advice about the importance of reading aloud at home each time they visit the doctor for well-child checkups from ages birth through 5 years.

Children who start kindergarten behind rarely catch up, and brain development is most rapid in the first 3 years of life. From birth, language-rich "back and forth" interactions between parent and child are critical for optimal development. That is why Reach Out and Read supports parents as their child's first teacher through an evidence-based early literacy program that helps parents understand how to support language development at home and nurture foundational relationships that allow children to develop the skills needed to be resilient in the face of adversity later in life.

We partner with communities and leverage the healthcare system to provide a free and accessible program that serves many of the most vulnerable children in the state. Currently, more than 2,000 medical providers in 232 clinics are reaching more than 112,000 young children and their families, throughout 31 counties in Washington. We prioritize serving children from families who are more likely to experience educational inequity. We want every child ages birth through 5 years to go home with a book. Your support helps make this possible!