Reading to a child is one of life's great joys.

Make books part of a healthy childhood

      Doctors and nurses know growing up healthy means growing up with books. At Children's Medical Center in Dallas, nurses in the Low-Birth Weight Clinic years ago started a "Reach Out and Read" program to demonstrate to parents of premature babies the importance of reading aloud to children.

      They teamed with local groups, book retailers and publishers to give a free book to every child, along with a doctor's prescription directing parents to read 15 minutes a day to their  child.

      The Dallas hospital worked with the national Reach Out and Read program, and Children's continues to provide books and even has foster grandmothers and volunteers read every day to children at the clinic.

      In 2007 Reach Out and Read was awarded the  UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, receiving worldwide recognition. The United Nations organization called Reach out and Read "an organization that works closely with health care infrastructures, urban health centres, neighborhood clinics, hospitals and public health departments “to reach low-income children most at risk of school failure by offering literacy guidance to their families and promoting a reading culture."

Reading to a child is not only a joy,
it is vitally important to the child's development and later success in school and in life.