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U.VA. to Launch Literacy Program for Preschoolers

The University of Virginia's Hospital Education Program and Department of Pediatrics will kick off a new program, Reach Out and Read, on Thursday, December 3rd to promote early literacy in preschool children.

From 8 to 9 a.m., Dr. Perri Klass, national medical director for Reach Out and Read, will introduce the program during Grand Rounds in the Camp Heart Auditorium. From 10:30 to 11a.m., Dave Cupp, news director and anchor of WVIR-TV 29, will share books with children in the Primary Care Center waiting room and demonstrate proper reading techniques to parents. At noon, Klass will train pediatric residents in how to counsel parents about literacy.

Reach Out and Read is a national program in which pediatricians discuss literacy development with parents just as they discuss the child's physical development. Through this program, we hope to teach parents that reading aloud to a child can help that child learn to read earlier, which in turn can lead to greater success in school, said Dr. Linda Waggoner-Fountain, assistant professor of pediatrics at U.Va.

As part of the program, U.Va. pediatricians will discuss the progression of literacy skills with parents during well-child checkups, and children ages four months through five years will be given an age-appropriate book to take home.

For more information, call Dr. Linda Waggoner-Fountain, assistant professor of pediatrics at U.Va., at (804)982-1925 or Linda Drake, the U.Va. coordinator for Reach Out and Read, at (804)924-0214.

December 1, 1998