Pediatric Waiting Rooms Become Classrooms While Patients Wait

May 6, 1999

GAINESVILLE — A 4-year-old girl sits in a hospital waiting room for nearly an hour, anxious over the shot she’s about to receive. She and her parents are getting restless.

The scene takes a turn for the better when a woman carrying a copy of “Winnie the Pooh” walks in, sits down with the girl and begins to read to her. The effect is calming. By the end of her visit, the child has learned a few new vocabulary words and is excited she gets to take the book home with her.

The long-term benefits of reading to children are well known, and now the University of Florida and Shands at UF medical center have teamed up to take advantage of the more immediate benefits as well.

Their program provides University of Florida America Reads student tutors for children waiting at Shands’ at UF Pediatric Continuity Care Clinic. The program, part of a national reading campaign known as Reach Out and Read, gives parents guidance on reading strategies and gives each patient a cultural and age-appropriate book to take home at the end of their visit.

Jennifer Tragash, America Reads program director at UF’s College of Education, said UF was one of the first universities to combine America Reads tutors with the Reach Out and Read program.

Traditional reading programs are designed to be placed in schools and to rely on volunteers from within the community, but tutors from the America Reads program have stepped in to help place the program in pediatric waiting rooms.

“There is a huge need in (pediatric waiting rooms) for more educational tools to be used to occupy the long waiting periods,” said Katherine Sims, Gainesville Reach Out and Read program founder.

Sims said physicians noticed some children’s reading and language skills weren’t as developed as others, and instead of pointing fingers, they decided to do something about it. Sims said physicians began “prescribing” reading for the children. Their goal is to make reading a routine part of child health care.

Sims said ideally the children will begin the program when they’re 6 months old. Their progress will be monitored throughout each regular check-up and immunization until they are 5.

She said the program uses reading tutors from UF’s America Reads tutoring program and places them in the waiting rooms. Shands’ pediatric residents also are encouraged to read to the children as well.

UF’s program was launched July with an initial grant of $4,000 from Reach Out and Read’s national headquarters at Boston Medical Center to purchase books for the children, said Sims.

In a joint position statement from the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children adopted in 1998, the two groups state “the early childhood years, from birth through age eight, are the most important period for literacy development.”

The “single most important activity for building these understandings and skills essential for reading success appears to be reading aloud to children” starting at birth through preschool the statement says.

Tragash said the program is expected to continue through the summer and expand into community clinics.

Sims said the university will begin researching the total effect of the program and how UF is using it to put things in perspective for new mothers and their children.