Teach your parents well Reading program attracts daughter-father pediatricians |
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Even in a small city, a pediatrician lives a busy life. But Dr. William Kohn always found time to read to his daughter Metta. Metta’s mother, Carolyn, also loved to read and shared with her daughter the classics of childhood: The Hungry Caterpillar. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The Runaway Bunny. Ferdinand the Bull. Curious George. Years later, all that reading paid off. Metta still reads. Except today Metta’s choices include titles like Kitchen Confidential, Atomic Sushi, AAP Grand Rounds and Quick Reference Guide to Pediatric Coding and Documentation for Infectious Diseases. “Reading has always been a fun thing for me,” says Dr. Metta Willey, a new physician at Metropolitan Pediatrics’ Gresham clinic. “I’ve always been a fast reader, which helped in school. Reading helped me to be a good student, and you need to do well to get into medical school.” At the Grants Pass Clinic, Dr. Kohn still encourages children to read. “For quite some time, I’ve been giving out copies of Read Aloud Handbook to parents to encourage them to read to their children,” he says. “I wanted to give books out to the kids, too.” But which books? Is Bunny a runaway hit for 6-month-olds? Are 5-year-olds curious about George? Dr. Kohn turned to his family childhood reading expert, daughter Metta, who recommended the Reach Out and Read program. “As a resident at OHSU, I was the coordinator for the ROR program,” Dr. Willey says. ROR supports early literacy through a program to provide books to children age 6 months to five years through their primary care providers. It has catalogues of age-appropriate books in English, Spanish or French. There are bilingual books, and a limited selection in Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Chinese, Haitian-Creole, Khmer, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. “When kids come to the doctor for a well-child visit, it’s nice to be able to give them a treat. And it’s nice to have books considered as a treat for kids and families,” Dr. Willey says. “As a pediatrician, I see that reading is very important to family bonding and for improving literacy when kids reach school age.” Grants Pass Clinic received an unexpected grant from ROR to begin the program. Now a regular part of well-child visits at the clinic is book time. |
About Reach Out and Read Founded in 1989 at Boston Medical Center, ROR has trained more than 40,000 doctors and nurses to provide guidance to parents about reading aloud and to give developmentally appropriate books to their young children, all as part of the well-child visit. For more information, go to www.reachoutandread.org Reach out and Read clinics in the CareOregon network of providersOregon
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