To Improve Education, Communication Meadows Foundation Grant Encourages Early Literacy Read to your baby. A new grant from the Meadows Foundation will help pediatric health care providers get that message to parents of babies and toddlers in Texas. Cooley is an assistant professor of developmental pediatrics at the Medical School. I m trying to get every pediatric clinic in the state to use the Reach Out and Read program in their pediatric practice, she said. We want pediatricians to talk about literacy because if indeed it s important for parents to read to their babies, you need to find a group who has access to lots of babies.
Pediatricians are that group.
Pediatricians have 10 chances with that parent to say, Read to your baby. It s important, Cooley said. Studies are showing that the program increases children s readiness to read when they start school. A big study of reading success in school has shown that the most important thing parents can do to ensure a child s reading success later is to read aloud to their babies from a very early age, Cooley said. It is as important as car safety, immunizations and nutrition because reading success is linked to later success in life.