The Maryland chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (MD-AAP) reports 20 percent of low-income children in Maryland are not ready to enter kindergarten, a statistic the Pediatric Group is ready to help change. The practice’s three Anne Arundel County locations, in Crofton, Davidsonville and Severna Park, are among the newest participants in MD-AAP’s Reach Out and Read program. Every Pediatric Group patient over the age of six months will receive a book to keep during his or her annual well visit exam.
As a national nonprofit organization, Reach Out and Read promotes early literacy by making books a routine part of pediatric care. The physicians and nurse practitioners at the Pediatric Group will receive special training from Reach Out and Read so they can encourage parents to read aloud to their children. By building on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers, Reach Out and Read and the Pediatric Group will help families and communities encourage early literacy skills so Anne Arundel County children will enter school prepared for success.
This is the second time the Pediatric Group has promoted a reading program. In July 2012, the practice collected several hundred books for Books for International Goodwill, which sends books and raises funds through used book sales to help impoverished communities throughout the world.
“Our providers believe in the power of books to establish a strong foundation for success in our young patients,” says Robert G. Graw, Jr., M.D., Managing Partner of the Pediatric Group, “and we are privileged to be part of the Reach Out and Read program to promote early literacy.”
