Partnership boosts early childhood development with books
Published on Monday, October 2, 2023
By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu
Photos By: Melanie Thortis and Lindsay McMurtray/ UMMC Communications
More pediatricians will have the opportunity to reach for an essential part of a well-child checkup: a book.
Reading will be included in an increasing number of children’s clinic visits in Mississippi thanks to a partnership between the Mississippi Children’s Museum and the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s pediatric arm, Children’s of Mississippi. The partnership was announced Wednesday in news conferences at Mississippi Children’s Museum locations in Jackson and Meridian.
The museum, in partnership with Children’s of Mississippi’s Center for Advancement of Youth, will work toward early childhood reading through Reach Out and Read, continuing efforts started through Mississippi Thrive!, a Children’s of Mississippi project funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration in 2017, and Talk from the Start, a program of the Barksdale Reading Institute and the museum.
Celebrating the Reach Out and Read partnership are, from left, Judy Newman, chief impact officer for Scholastic; Reach Out and Read CEO Marty Martinez; Children's of Mississippi CEO Dr. Guy Giesecke; early childhood development expert Dr. Susan Buttross; state Rep. Shanda Yates; and Susan Garrard, president and CEO of the Mississippi Children's Museum.
Endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Reach Out and Read is a national nonprofit that supports healthy early parent-child relationships through shared reading. During routine well-child visits, Reach Out and Read medical providers discuss with parents and caregivers how to use books to engage with their infants and young children. Parents get to keep the book to enjoy with their children at home.
Reach Out and Read serves children in all 50 states through 6,000 clinics and 33,000 clinicians.
Garrard thanks UMMC and its pediatric arm, Children's of Mississippi for collaboration to boost early childhood development through reading.
“MCM is honored to have the opportunity to extend our current work in early childhood development by partnering with Reach Out and Read, and local medical advisors at UMMC,” said Susan Garrard, MCM president and CEO, “We all have a mutual mission of improving language development in Mississippi, and we’re so excited for the future of this program. We’re especially grateful to Reach Out and Read and Scholastic for investing in this program and will be seeking additional funding to make this program a valued resource and success story for our state.”
Buttross tells news conference attendees about the importance of early childhood development through reading.
“The last seven years (through Mississippi Thrive!), we’ve been holding hands and working together to make a difference,” said Dr. Susan Buttross, professor of pediatrics and a principal investigator for the project, “and we’re not done yet.”
Young children’s brains, she said, are constantly changing, building neural pathways. “Our job is to hardwire those pathways by talking, reading and singing with children,” she said. “Let’s join hands and continue the work of brain-building.”
“Reading with a child also fosters a love of books and strengthens the bond between parents and children,” she said.
Martinez discusses the importance of physicians encouraging story time for young children.
“Giving every young child a foundation for success strengthens our society and helps combat the effects of income inequality”, said Reach Out and Read CEO Marty Martinez.
“In addition to building literacy, reading together is the kind of positive interaction that promotes long-term bonding, health and well-being,” he said. “We’re excited to work with the Mississippi Children’s Museum and University of Mississippi Medical Center to further our work in the state, setting families on a lifelong path of learning and wellness.”
Thirty-four clinics around the state participated in the early childhood program through Mississippi Thrive!, a foundation Reach Out and Read hopes to build upon.
Reach Out and Read is providing a $15,000 grant to the Mississippi Children’s Museum for the program, and Scholastic is matching those funds with $15,000 in children’s books.
Giesecke thanks the Mississippi Children's Museum and Reach Out and Read for their support of early childhood reading initiatives.
“Children’s of Mississippi believes that education and reading starts at a young age,” said Dr. Guy Giesecke, CEO of the pediatric organization that includes the state’s only children’s hospital as well as clinics around the state. “Even in our neonatal intensive care unit, we encourage parents to read to their children.”
The AAP recommends reading with babies to “promote … social-emotional development … and language and literacy skills during this critical period of early brain and child development.”
Children’s of Mississippi will work with the Mississippi Children’s Museum in spreading the program.
“We communicate with pediatricians around the state,” Giesecke said, “and each of them knows the importance of education and reading at a young age.”
Martinez and museum leaders visited Children’s of Mississippi’s Batson Kids Clinic in Jackson to see the program in action.
“We were standing near a bookcase and had to step aside so a pediatric resident could get a book to read to his patient,” Martinez said. “That’s what this is all about.”