Reading aloud is one of the most important things parents can do to help their children learn. Reach Out and Read (ROAR) is a program that builds on the special relationship between doctors and the parents of young children to support children's language and literacy development.

• At well-child visits, from 6 months to 5 years, doctors and nurses provide information about the importance of reading aloud and give
  new, developmentally appropriate books to the children to take home.

• Physicians discuss the utility of daily reading to preschool children to help their language development.

• Volunteers model reading of books to young children in the waiting area.

• Approximately 10,000 books are provided to children each year through El Rio's six pediatric clinics.

Since 1989, Reach Out and Read has provided the link between literacy and a healthy childhood to millions of children, with a special emphasis on children growing up in poverty. Reach Out and Read reinforces the parent's role as the first and most important teacher, and gives parents the tools and techniques to help their children succeed.

The Reach Out and Read program began as collaboration between pediatricians and early childhood educators at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) in 1989. Working together, these educators and physicians found that pediatricians and nurse practitioners were in a unique position to promote early literacy for two reasons:

• They enjoy regular contact with young children and their parents through well-child check-ups.
• Medical practitioners are a highly trusted source of guidance for parents of young children. Coming from such a source, information on early literacy carries the weight it deserves.

From the start ROAR was based on a simple but powerful premise: encourage parents to read to their children and give them the tools (or books) to do so. That premise is the basis for the ROAR model utilized by over 1,400 program sites today, including El Rio Community Health Center.