Pediatrician Dr. Suzanne Nielsen at Banner Health Center in Gilbert, Arizona participates in the Reach Out and Read program to promote early literacy and school readiness.

Pediatricians with Banner Health recognize the importance of reading aloud to children and have implemented a book giveaway program to help their patients understand it, too.

The Reach Out and Read program promotes early literacy and school readiness. It’s in use at Banner Health Centers where pediatricians are based — in Gilbert, Chandler, Maricopa and Queen Creek.

Reach Out and Read was founded in 1989 and is used at about 1,500 sites in all 50 states, distributing 1.6 million books a year, according to Dr. Anne Welch, a Banner physician in Maricopa, who oversees the Banner program in Arizona.

Banner’s program is paid for by grants from the Banner Foundation and Target and an employee giving program.

Banner pediatricians give books to children at their well visits starting when a child is 6 months old and continuing until age 5. Generally, that involves nine visits in five years.

Dr. Suzanne Nielsen, a pediatrician who works at the Banner Health Center in Gilbert, said she began participating in Reach Out and Read during her medical residency. After beginning her professional practice, she tried, unsuccessfully, to implement the reading program at the small office where she worked. She later joined Banner Health and said when it adopted the program in 2012 she was thrilled.

“It’s a nice way to assess how a family is using books, when you hand a book to a child,” Nielsen said.

She always gives the book to the child, not the parent, she said, to see how the child reacts. It’s normal for a 6 month old to almost immediately put the book in her mouth, she said. With toddlers and slightly older children, Nielsen looks to see if they know how to turn the pages and hold the book in order to open it.

A doctor can assess motor skills by watching the child with a book, she said.

If the child doesn’t seem to recognize what a book is or what to do with it, “it’s a good trigger for me to ask questions,” Dr. Nielsen said. She can talk to parents about the value of books and reading to a developing child, especially about how important books are to language development.

While those factors are all important, the real reason for giving out the books, Nielsen said, is to promote reading, to promote going to the library and to get books into the hands of children who may not get them elsewhere.

Banner distributes books written both in English and Spanish.

Read more here.