By Lisa M. Belisle, MD, MPH
Originally published July 4, 2005, Portland Press Herald

It is graduation season once more. Caps and gowns abound on campuses across the state, as parents proudly watch their children reap the rewards of their educational efforts. This week a much shorter crowd gathered to don ceremonial mortarboards at the Blaine House in Augusta. These 5-year-olds were Raising Readers graduates: they were celebrating the beauty of books.

Raising Readers helps health care providers jumpstart a love of literature in the preschool set. This is done with carefully selected books, which are distributed at every well-child visit from birth to age 5. Funded by the Libra Foundation, and run by MaineHealth and Eastern Maine Healthcare, Raising Readers has given away more than half a million books in the past five years. The program is available to all Maine children, regardless of income.

Providers, patients and parents alike respond enthusiastically to the Raising Readers program. “We love giving something to children besides shots,” one physician said recently. Health care providers are doing more than simply handing out books; they are giving parents tools for building brain cells. Specialists emphasize the necessity of stimulating this essential organ beginning at birth. This allows the nerve cells to make crucial connections that facilitate learning. Reading to kids is an enjoyable way of providing this stimulation. Babies and older children benefit from books by looking at their pictures, listening to their words, and being held in the laps of those who care for them. Reading becomes a beloved activity, with positive and lasting associations.

Beyond being a merely a pleasant social pastime, early reading can significantly influence a child’s future entertainment choices. This need for this is increasingly evident. A study by the National Endowment for the Arts showed that less than half of American adults now read for pleasure—a number that has plummeted by 10% in the last 20 years. More than 20 million readers have been lost to pursuits such as television watching and video games. This is problematic, because pleasure readers are more likely to engage in cultural, sports and volunteer activities than non-readers: they are keeping our society afloat.

Society cannot fully flourish without proficient readers. Children who can’t read have higher rates of school failure, which is in turn linked to substance abuse, criminality and teen pregnancy. Adults who can’t read have difficulty getting and maintaining employment. According to data from the National Adult Literacy Survey, 21–23% of Americans are functionally illiterate, or unable “to use reading, speaking, writing and computational skills in common life situations.” An additional 25–28% have only marginal literacy skills.

Literacy has a direct impact on health. Reading is necessary for understanding consent forms, medicine labels and health care instructions. Individuals with low literacy are five times more likely to misinterpret a prescription. They are 52% more likely to require hospitalization. It is little wonder that pediatric care providers have so readily welcomed Raising Readers into their practices.

While Raising Readers graduates will no longer receive books from their health care providers, their journey to literacy is not over. They are encouraged to begin (or continue) their relationship with their local library. Some of these will offer library cards adorned with a sticker proclaiming the child to be a “Raising Readers Graduate.” This early alliance affords children countless invaluable resources in a book-blessed environment.

For the 5-year-olds at the end of their Raising Readers experience, the program concludes with a fitting final gift. Prepared solely for Raising Readers, this special book is a compilation of stories written and illustrated by individuals from Maine. These willingly donated creations are a show of support for literacy in the state. The book, a reflection of Maine’s rich artistic heritage, will likely be treasured by Raising Readers graduates until they begin “raising readers” of their own.

Raising Readers is about getting books to babies, and so much more. It is a down payment on Maine’s future. Through Raising Readers, the Libra Foundation has given health care providers a marvelous means for promoting reading in their pediatric populations. Having a love of literature will help children succeed as advance in their education. The Blaine House mortarboards are not likely the last ones those 5-year-olds will wear…