Long description for poster image:

Title box with TCALL logo at side:
Looking for Early Literacy: The Reach Out and Read Assessment Project
Jacqueline Gramann, Ed. M.
Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy & Learning (TCALL)

Below title box:
The two purposes of the quasi-experimental study were to evaluate a Reach Out and Read (ROR) program and to provide feedback to the ROR program, volunteers, medical staffs, and the research community.

Abstract box: Abstract
The Reach Out and Read Assessment was an evaluation of a Reach Out and Read (ROR) program with 24 participant families in the sample. Families participated in both a parent survey and a child literacy assessment during well-child visits at ROR and control site clinics. Participant families were assessed at both the 6 month and 12 month visits. The treatment and control groups were predominately a Hispanic, underinsured population, with the control being similar, not identical.
Photo image of the ROR Reading Corner

Findings box: Findings
The local ROR family literacy program, part of the national Reach Out and Read (ROR) organization, had a positive impact on the community, reaching the families most in need of literacy assistance. The Reach Out and Read Assessment project evaluated and found the following key points:

1. The strongest finding was that of the ROR parents reading to their children in a greater proportion by the time the children were 12 months of age when compared to the control parents.
2. The number of books given out by the program, the volunteers reading in the waiting room, and the very young children listening to stories being read in the waiting room were all significantly greater at the ROR location.
3. The local ROR program was shown to be evidence-based. Trends in the data were positive.
4. The children as a group assessed at their age equivalents using the PLS-4 instrument.

The data box: The Question: Do you read to your child?
The control group parents at 6 months were reading more to their infants, but by 12 months this pattern had reversed: a greater proportion of Reach Out Read parents read to their children. [F = 2.69, df = 1,21, p = .10]
Graph image illustrates that at 6 months, 50% of ROR parents said they read children’s books to their infants. By 12 months this increased to 93% of ROR parents reading. By comparison, 78% of control parents read to their children at 6 months, increasing to 89% at 12 months.

Right side information box:
Jacqueline Gramann
rubyslippers@tamu.edu

Left side information box:
TCALL/Texas A&M University
www-tcall.tamu.edu
800-441-READ