Washington, DC, Aug 23, 2006 - Doctors at the Georgetown Pediatric Center are sending families home from check-ups with free books and a very important prescription – “read aloud to your children.” Today, Congressman Carter visited the health center to follow doctors’ orders by reading to a group of young patients.

Georgetown Pediatric Center participates in Reach Out and Read, a program that trains medical providers to advise parents about the importance of reading aloud and to give free books to children at check-ups from 6 months to 5 years. The books are new, carefully chosen, and developmentally appropriate - starting with board books for babies and moving on to more complex picture books for preschoolers. Through Reach Out and Read, each child starts kindergarten with a home library of up to 10 books and a parent who has heard at every health supervision visit about the importance of books and reading.

The program has gained broad bipartisan support in the United States Congress and has received federal funding since 2001.

“Reach Out and Read is a valuable educational tool that I am pleased to fully support. My wife and I read to our children when they were young, and I believe it is an activity that benefits children as they enter school and throughout their lives. I encourage all parents to take the time to teach their children the importance and joy of reading,” Congressman Carter said.

Georgetown Pediatric Center is one of 5 sites in his district that participate in Reach Out and Read, providing books to more than 4,937 children annually. Across the state, 197 Reach Out and Read sites serve over 174,765 low-income infants, toddlers and preschoolers annually.

Reach Out and Read doctors and nurses distribute 4.1 million books to more than 2.5 million children and their families annually at almost 3,000 pediatric practices, hospitals, clinics and health centers in all 50 states, targeting those centers which serve children at socioeconomic risk. Reach Out and Read has one of the strongest records of research support of any primary care intervention. For more than a decade, studies have indicated that parents who get books and literacy counseling from their doctors and nurses are more likely to read to their young children, read to them more often, and provide more books in the home. More than 44,000 medical providers nationwide have received Reach Out and Read training.