1. Read
Lead
SUCCEED!

2. SOMSRFT Advocacy Campaign 2012-2013
AAP Section of Medical Student, Residents and Fellowship Trainees Annual Campaign focused on Advocacy
Provides a framework for YOU to get involved and create an advocacy project of your own
Successful campaigns in the past focused on smoking, vaccines, obesity and voting for kids!

3. Just the Facts
More than 1/3 of 4th graders read so poorly they cannot complete their schoolwork successfully
Children who develop more literacy skills in the preschool years perform better in the primary grades
Reading just 20 minutes per night corresponds to a 10 point increase on literacy tests
Results of the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress
Source: National Institute for Literacy

4. The Problem One in four children grow up without learning how to read
53% of children ages 3-5 are read to daily by a family member
Only 3-5% of children are able to read phonemically by kindergarten
In addition, 22% of American adults have minimal literacy skills, 44 million cannot even read a simple story to their child

5. Everyone Deserves to Read
62% of parents with a high socioeconomic status read to their children every day
For America’s poorest children, the biggest obstacle to literacy is the scarcity of books and appropriate reading material
85% of juvenile delinquents are functionally illiterate
Bullet one- compared to only 36% of parents with a low socioeconomic status. This translates to one third to one half as many words heard. The gap between children from low- and high-income families on reading comprehension scores is more than 40 points

6. Why Literacy Matters
Children who are read to regularly are more likely to:
Know their alphabet
Count higher
Write their own name
Read themselves
Decreased high school drop out rate
Decreased chance of ending up in jail or on welfare
In a study conducted of kindergartners, those who were read to at least three times a week as they entered kindergarten were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25 percent of literacy tests than children who were read to less than three times a week
15 minutes a day of independent reading can expose students to more than a million words of text in a year
Children without basic literacy skills are times more likely to drop out
66% of children who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare
The estimated cost of illiteracy is $73 million per year of direct health care costs

7. How can you get involved?
Continuity Clinic
Residency Program
Hospital
Community
State
Federal

8. Continuity Clinic Reinforce literacy at each WCC
Ensure every child receives a book
Learn to assess literacy with Reach Out and Read tools/curriculum
Emphasize importance of Dad reading
Create library resource for parents
How to obtain library card
Story times at local libraries for children
Bullet one- better to give the book prior to the visit, time for reading in the waiting room.
Tools for ROR stages of reading are included in this CD. Use them to educate your families on important reading milestones

9. Use these milestones to educate your parents and encourage them to start reading at an early age
Courtesy of Reach Out and Read

10. Continuity Clinic Develop a QI project
Assess how often parents read to their children
Assess how long parents read for
Write a prescription for reading 20 min per night
Assess how parents choose books
Give examples of age appropriate books
In addition you could Assess literacy level of parents and Learn how to screen parents literacy levels
Assess what age parents begin reading/think it is important? Reinforce that it is never to early to start reading!
Children 0-5 should be read to for at least 20 min per night. There is a prescription for reading on the CD for you to print and hand out to your patients
A sample questionaire is included on the CD. It can be handed out to patients before and after a period of counseling and you could track for a change in responses

11. Residency Program/Hospital
Coordinate volunteers to read to inpatient wards/chronic care centers/dialysis units, etc.
Dedicate a journal club/advocacy group/noon conference to early childhood literacy
Commit to every resident becoming certified with Reach Out and Read
Free online module/video curriculum
Bullet one- Partner with medical student interest groups/hospital volunteers/pre-med groups
In addition you could Create a hospital library or publicize an existing one

12. Community Present… Redecorate… Support….
Other examples include Organize a book drive Organize a health fair at a local book store

13. Community
Present to parent groups at local schools about literacy and it’s importance
Redecorate/renovate a local school or shelter’s library
Support adult literacy classes,
Could publicize, sponsor, provide space
Other examples include Organize a book drive Organize a health fair at a local book store

14. State & Federal Literacy Funding
Most funding for literacy efforts came from federal appropriations and congressional provisions
Major literacy initiatives are now applying for competitive federal grants to supplement private donations
Due to cuts in federal funding less support for literacy efforts is available

15. State & Federal Opportunities
Contact your Congressperson and Senator to have them support the Prescribe A Book Act
Participate in the literacy advocacy day on Capitol Hill
Reach out and Read State Representative
Each state has a rep actively involved in legislative advocacy with projects easy to get involved with
Bullet 1: (PABA: House Bill 820; Senate Bill 393)
Bullet 2: in Washington DC in March 2013 (in support of PABA, local libraries, and other similar initiatives)
Bullet 3: If you are interested in writing a letter to your legislature there are contacts (by state) for your local reach out and read representatives on the CD. They would be happy to assist you. You could create a letter writing campagin specific to the needs of your community.

16. National Screen Free Week
April 28 - May 4
Prescribe a TV/screen free day and offer activities to do instead
Encourage each child to pick a day to be screen free
Other important literacy dates can be found on the literacy calendar
A sample prescription is located on the CD, this can be handed out as a prescribtion for a screen free day.
A calander of events is provided so you can get involved. There is also a RX to give to children to turn off the TV provided on the CD.
Sponsored by Campaign for Commercial-free Childhood

17. National Residency Competition
Get involved
Choose a project/group to commit to as a residency program or come up with your own!
Tell us about it
Each program delegate will communicate with the AAP about the project and it’s success
Get recognized
An overall winner will be chosen and eligible for prizes!
Unveil your project idea to your program/communuty from April The AAP will be promoting this week as our literacy advocacy week. From then until september SOMSRFT will be hightlighting a “project of the month.” At the NCE in 2013 we will reveal a winner, who will be in for a BIG prize!

18. Resources 1. Committee on Early Childhood
Staff contact: Charlotte Zia,
2. Section on Early Education and Child Care
Staff contact: Jeanne VanOrsdal,
3. Literacy Toolkit
Accessible via the Committee on Early Childhood webpage and directly at:

19. References
National Institute for Literacy (2006). The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Available online.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics (1996). National Household Education Study, Washington DC: Author.
National Center for Education Statistics (1993) The Condition of Education. Washington DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Needlman R, Fried L, Morley D, Traylor S, Zuckerman B. Clinic-Based Intervention to Promote Literacy. American Medical Association American Journal of Diseases of Children; 145(881) 1991.
National Center for Educational Statistics,caliteracy.org