Starting a ROR Program

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 checkup, 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. Providers give every child between the ages of 6 months and 5 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.

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.

    Goals
    Reach Out and Read - SC plans to expand until all children in South Carolina are reached with this vital literacy intervention. ROR programs seek to make early literacy a standard part of pediatric primary care. Pediatricians and family practitioners encourage parents to read aloud to their young children and give books to their patients to take home at all pediatric well-child checkups from 6 months to 5 years of age. Parents learn that reading aloud is the most important thing they can do to help their children love books and to start school ready to learn. In the waiting room at a ROR clinic there are often volunteers ready to read to the children.