Retired preschool teacher Mary Watson knows how important it is for children to gain a foundation for learning before they start school.
Watson, who taught kindergarten at Winthrop University’s MacFeat Early Childhood Laboratory School in Rock Hill for more than 30 years, knows that children learn rapidly from birth through age 5. Those years are a time, she said, when parents and other caregivers can set the stage for lifelong learning.
The Early Learning Partnership of York County’s Reach Out and Read program promotes reading and bonding between families during these critical years. Through ROR, children from birth to 5 years receive books from pediatricians at their well child visits, and medical providers talk about the benefits of reading and bonding.
“Being able to have a program like Reach Out and Read, where the doctor’s office is basically prescribing a book, it’s reaching parents,” said Watson, who also serves as a member of the ELP board.
Medical providers encourage parents, Watson said, “to read to that child every day, and to talk to that child every day, and what better way to do it than to sit down and cuddle and read a book together.”
The Early Learning Partnership of York County’s Reach Out and Read program promotes reading and bonding between families during these critical years. Through ROR, children from birth to 5 years receive books from pediatricians at their well child visits, and medical providers talk about the benefits of reading and bonding.
Watson said studies show that children in homes where they are exposed to a variety of language at an early age start kindergarten with a better understanding of words. Studies show they also do better in school than children who are not exposed to a variety of language at an early age, she said.
ROR enables families to build a home library with the books children receive at well visits, she said. ROR also chooses books that “speak to the diversity of children today, so a child can see themselves in the pages of the book.”
The quality of the books and illustrations is also important, Watson said. She said that ROR chooses books with words and illustrations that are developmentally appropriate for the age of each child.
“This has focused on meeting children at their age levels. The younger children get the board books that are harder, they can chew on.” Older children may be more interested in illustrations, stories and seeing words on a page, she said.
She said the positive feelings children get from reading with parents or other caregivers each day and hearing stories that encourage their imagination help lower the stress that many children inevitably face. They also set the stage for brain development later on.
“At home, it’s sitting and holding that child in your lap and reading, taking 10 minutes to read every day, and that’s the most amazing gift you can give a child,” she said. “Because as you are doing that the children feel safe, secure and loved.”
“That security, they want to continue that, and they associate that with reading,” she said. “It’s an amazing program.”
Contact us if you have stories to share about your ROR experience at your pediatric practice.