How ROR Works

Reach Out and Read (ROR) programs make early literacy a standard part of pediatric primary care. Following the ROR model, pediatricians, family physicians and nurses advise parents that reading aloud is the most important thing they can do to help their children love books and to start school ready to learn.

The ROR Model

Pediatricians and other clinicians are trained in the three part ROR model in an effort to promote pediatric literacy:

1. At every well-child check-up, doctors and nurses encourage parents to read aloud to their young children, and offer age-appropriate tips and encouragement. Parents who may have difficulty reading are encouraged to invent their own stories to go with picture books and spend time naming objects with their children.

2. Pediatricians, family physicians and nurses give every child between the ages of six months and five years a new, developmentally appropriate children's book to keep.

3. In literacy rich waiting room environments, often with volunteer readers, parents and children learn about the pleasures and techniques of looking at books together.

Download the ROR model (PDF). Get Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The Importance of Early Literacy — and Early Intervention

Children who live in print-rich environments and who are read to during the first years of life are more likely to learn to read on schedule.

16% of parents of children age three years and younger do not read at all with their children, and 23% do so only once or twice a week.*

Percentages are even lower among low-income families, whose children face the highest risk of literacy problems.

Reading difficulty contributes to school failure, which increases the risk of absenteeism, leaving school, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, and teenage pregnancy — all of which perpetuate the cycles of poverty and dependency.

Families living in poverty often lack the money to buy new books, as well as access to libraries. Parents who may not have been read to as children themselves may not realize the tremendous value of reading to their own children.

Educators and developmental psychologists have long considered reading aloud to children important in helping those children develop early literacy skills.

*Young, KT, Davis K, Schoen C, et al: Listening to parents. A national survey of parents with young children. Arch. Pediatr Adolesc Med 1998;152:255

Download the Policy Case for Reach Out and Read (PDF).
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