OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — As we wrap up our 13 Reads: Stop the Summer Slide campaign, we focus on setting the stage for a lifetime of literacy.
A child’s pediatrician measures their height and weight to ensure they’re hitting all the benchmarks.
But there’s a program in Ottawa County that ALSO has the family doctor watching for a child’s LITERACY benchmarks. More than 150 doctor’s clinics in Michigan offer the Reach Out & Read program.
Ottawa Area Intermediate School District Early Childhood Services Director Maureen Schmidt said 90% of the brain is developed by age five, so the timing is everything.
It is the trusted relationship between a doctor and their patients that makes the program work.
Reach Out & Read is the only national pediatric literacy model endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
It serves 4.4 million children and families across every state in the country, laying the foundation for a lifetime of reading and learning.