It should concern our state government leaders that more than half of our indigent children cannot read proficiently by the time they reach third grade. In a discussion with a high-up administrator in our county schools last week, I learned that about the same number of children who are not reading well in third grade end up dropping out of school. These children become a drain on our economy (unemployment, unplanned pregnancy, substance abuse, crime, welfare costs). I have been told that Virginia plans for prison construction based upon third grade reading scores.
No commitment of resources at the public school level will fix this problem. We must start much earlier. We know that some children hear 10 times as many words as others in the first two years of life, and that these children are most likely to have good language skills when they enter kindergarten and good reading skills when they are in third grade. We know that the children of well-to-do parents are reading much better, as a group, than the children of indigent parents. We know that when the television is on, adults stop talking. We know that many indigent mothers are single and lack the education, support, and maturity to raise healthy children who do well in school.
At this time, only about one-third of children who qualify for Head Start, Smart Start and N.C. Pre-K (More at Four) can be served by these programs. However, over 96 percent of our preschool children come to child health professionals for regular well-child care, including immunizations.
How to help
In our large pediatric practice, for the last 10 years, we have been giving age- and culturally appropriate books to all preschool children who come for recommended check-ups in our practice through a program called Reach Out and Read.
Later this month, our practice will conduct a seminar led by an administrator/psychologist in our public schools and he will explain to us how the public schools can measure school readiness for kindergarten through third grade. We will be able to tell, going forward, if our practice-based efforts are helping improve the school readiness of our youngest children.
There are 15 evidence-based research studies that show the value of Reach Out and Read in improving school readiness. At the same time, we will reach out to other agencies that interact with indigent families in our county so that all service-providers deliver the same messages about improving school readiness to the parents of at-risk preschool children.
However, this local Reach Out and Read project will not accomplish our goal. We need broad-based community, state and federal support if we are to significantly improve the school readiness of children entering our public schools.
At the community level, all families must buy into the initiative by focusing on assuring that their children become good readers by third grade. This means that families must turn off electronic media (smart phones, iPads, laptops, video game boxes, TVs, etc.) whenever their children are awake, and must concentrate on talking with their children, close-up and face-to-face, as much as possible. Human conversation is the most powerful stimulant for optimal brain development of young children. Families must read to or with their babies and young children for at least one-half hour every day, birth through third grade.
At the state level, leaders should assure that we expand Medicaid according to federal guidelines so that indigent mothers will have access to comprehensive health services. Many indigent mothers have physical and mental health issues that keep them from becoming good parents.
The state should provide matching funds for primary care physicians who implement Reach Out and Read in their practices so that all our at-risk preschool children are enrolled in Reach Out and Read. Currently, our practice must raise about $40,000 each year to fund Reach Out and Read. It would cost the state about $1 million per year to implement such a matching program involving all primary care medical practices.
At the federal level, there should be funding support for states such that all indigent children are able to participate in high quality preschool programs like Head Start, Smart Start and NC Pre-K.
If we fail to invest now in improving the school readiness of our youngest children, we cannot complain down the road when our economy continues to sputter and we slowly become a welfare state.
Dave Tayloe Jr., MD, is a practicing pediatrician in Goldsboro, medical director for Reach Out and Read of North Carolina and senior fellow at Action for Children North Carolina.