Reach Out and Read aids literacy

A a member of the board of Reach Out and Read-S.C., I must respond to the column by Brian Hicks regarding reading. The medical profession, working through this organization, is making reading to young children an integral part of their medical visits.

Parents of young children can help them enter school more prepared for literacy success by doing one simple thing -- reading to their children every day. That small daily act can help overcome the daunting challenge presented by 35 percent of American children arriving for kindergarten unprepared. Less than half -- 47.2 percent -- of S.C. children five and under are read to daily. That's more than 155,000 kids under five going to bed every night in our state without a bedtime story.

Reading to young children has been proved to be the single most important thing parents can do to ensure their children's success in school.

Scientific studies have shown that parents who get books and literacy counseling from their health care providers are more likely to read to their young children, read to them more often and provide more books in the home.

Through the Reach Out and Read early childhood literacy program, local doctors in South Carolina will give 180,000 books to more than 98,000 of their youngest patients at check-ups this year and advise their parents about the importance of reading, giving them a "prescription to read." ROR now serves more than 30 percent of all kids in South Carolina and more than 60 percent of children living at or near poverty.

Reach Out and Read focuses on children at greatest risk -- children aged six months to five years living at or near poverty. Doctors distribute carefully selected, new, developmentally and culturally appropriate books starting with board books for babies and moving on to more complex picture books for preschoolers.

By utilizing the health care system to deliver books and literacy counseling, we can help ensure that parents read to their children every day and that every child enters school ready to learn. Let's all do our part by reading to our children daily.

Please get involved with Reach Out and Read-S.C. and support our efforts to help children in South Carolina enter school ready for success -- reachoutandreadsc.org.

H.B. OTHERSEN, Jr., M.D.
West Street
Charleston