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Tina Sawyer: In her recent State of the State address, Governor Gretchen Whitmer proposed a $625 million investment for literacy as part of a budget recommendation, the largest in state history.
The goal is to put money towards programs that connect parents with extra help when young kids don't meet their milestones, including literacy. One such non-profit offering that help is Reach Out and Read Michigan.
I recently spoke with developmental pediatrician from the University of Michigan and Reach Out and Read, Dr. Tiffany Munzer, who began the conversation by explaining how the program is implemented.
Dr. Tiffany Munzer: Reach Out and Read really is a coalition of pediatric providers across the state of Michigan who provide free books to kids as a part of their regular well-child checks and serves one in four low-income families. And so it's not just about the free book, you know, it's about using that book like a stethoscope to really examine how a child is interacting with that book. And it's about calling out all of the positive activities that parents and caregivers are already doing with their kids in the exam rooms. For instance, the 18-month visit, kids who are exposed to books in their home environment, when you give them a book upside down in the clinic space, They'll know to turn it right side up. They have the cognitive ability to know that book needs to be turned right side up. So that's already one check that we can have for understanding where a child starts out at.
TS: Tiffany, HarperCollins, which is a book publisher, published a study very recently that showed only 40% of parents are reading to their kids, and many of them Gen. Z, calling that act ...boring. What would you say to these parents to encourage them to read to their children?
TM: It's not just about the reading. It's about building the nurturing relationship with your child. It's about exploring together with your child and trying to get into your child's mind, pointing out all the things that might be interesting or exciting. For instance, at six months of age, infants, they don't know that you're not reading the words on the page, and it's okay not to read the words on the page. Kids are really sensory motor learners. They learn from tactile experiences. They might put the book in their mouth. Just narrating what your child is doing can really build those language connections in their brains early on. And we know that some adults haven't had that language-rich environment themselves or haven't had that investment from a systemic standpoint to feel confident in reading. So joining with caregivers to understand where they're at and what is comfortable for them in creating that language-rich environment is really important.
TS: It requires a little creativity on the parent's part, right?
TM: Yes, it really does. You know, for some parents, their first child is really the first opportunity they've had in a very long time to interact with kids.
TS: You were mentioning, too, reading to your child as young as six months. So, at what age does the whole "parent reading with a child" dynamic stop, or should it?
TM: Oh, that's a really great question. I think it doesn't have to stop, you know, with the caveat that some kids, you know, as they get to be stronger readers, they really do prefer to read on their own, and that's okay, in which case they can read out loud to the parents or siblings.
TS: Is there anything about the Reach Out and Read program that you would like to bring up that I haven't asked a question about?
TM: One thing is that, you know, unfortunately, our state has lagged behind other states in early childhood literacy, and Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based solution, but the potential is not fully realized yet because there hasn't been the state-level funding support for this program.
TS: I did notice on your list of providers that there's parts of the Eastern UP that aren't covered through this program yet. Is this something for the future?
TM: We really want to expand to the U.P. especially, but there have just been some funding constraints that have been tricky to navigate, so we're really working on it, and it's such a key and important area of the state.
TS: That was Dr. Tiffany Munzer, medical director for the Reach Out and Read Michigan program.
