Research

Understanding and Demonstrating Our Impact

Evaluating — and strengthening — our role in pediatric care

Reach Out and Read conducts research that shines a light on the positive outcomes of delivery of our model and reveals new areas where we can benefit young children, their families, and our network. We continue to strengthen and expand our evidence base to ensure that our model remains relevant, is based in the latest scientific understanding of child development, and delivers maximum impact for the millions we serve.


Our Research Approach

We combine the benefits of academic research with less traditional methodology to evaluate real-world implementation, working with and learning from the communities, clinicians, and parents and caregivers who we serve. We are especially focused on the opportunity for grassroots transformation of pediatric care through quality improvement projects conducted within our network.

Our research explores the outcomes of delivery of our model that affect the health and well-being of the children and families we serve, including early childhood development in cognitive, social emotional, and relational domains; family stress and depression; and compliance with, and experience of, pediatric health care. We are also interested in how delivery of our model impacts clinician well-being.

LitNet: A Collaborative Research Network

We conduct research through a collaborative network called LitNet, which includes Reach Out and Read clinicians, researchers, and coordinators. Our widescale, national platform of clinics — who deliver our model in a variety of clinic types, including community, private, and academic in rural, suburban, and urban communities — allows us to learn about factors that affect the delivery of our model in different contexts.

There are many ways for clinicians to engage in our research! For more information, sign up for the Reach Out and Read research newsletter, launching in September 2024.

Our Current Research

Starting in 2024, Reach Out and Read will embark on a long-term research project in partnership with the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University and the Institute for Child Success. The project is designed to strengthen the evidence base that supports universal promotion of healthy early relationships through delivery of Reach Out and Read in well-child visits.   

Working with our clinic network, we will enroll 5,000 families in a longitudinal cohort that will examine early childhood development and family well-being outcomes in response to strategies that promote healthy early relationships through pediatric primary care.

We will also engage our clinic network in quality improvement projects and community-based research, which will tell us what works, for whom and under what conditions. Based on discussions with parents and caregivers— who tell us that their relationship with their doctor is the most influential factor in supporting their relationship with their young children — our first project is to pilot strategies that improve the parent-caregiver well-child visit experience using a parent co-designed exam room experience survey.

We invite clinicians to join us in this work! For more information, sign up for the Reach Out and Read research newsletter, launching in September 2024.

Reach Out and Read-Sponsored Research Awards

Reach Out and Read sponsors research awards administered through the Academic Pediatric Association.

From 2011-2023, we sponsored awards through the Young Investigator Award program. In 2024, in response to feedback from our researchers, we launched the Collaborative Research Awards Program. This award engages a collaborative team to advance early relational health and early childhood development through primary care-based early literacy interventions, including Reach Out and Read and other related programs and their extensions to the community.  The study team will represent diversity in lived experience and academic institution, including an early career investigator-mentor team.

© 2023
Reach Out and Read is 501(c)3 nonprofit that gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.
 

National Center

Reach Out and Read
89 South St., Suite 201
Boston, MA 02111

info@reachoutandread.org
Phone: 617.455.0600

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National Center

Reach Out and Read
89 South St., Suite 201
Boston, MA 02111

info@reachoutandread.org
Phone: 617.455.0600

© 2023
Reach Out and Read is 501(c)3 nonprofit that gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.
Charity Navigator 4 Star Charity Guidestar Platinum Seal of Transparency Excellence in Giving Certified Transparent

Join Our Community