Reach Out and Read, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Program Overview

Reach Out and Read, a national nonprofit organization started at Boston City Hospital in 1989, gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.

Reach Out and Read (ROR) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia started in 1996 and is implemented at 23 of CHOP’s primary care centers located in CHOP Care Network in West (CHOP Campus, Karabots, Cobbs Creek, Family Care Center), South and Northwest (Chestnut Hill, Roxborough) Philadelphia; Broomall, Chalfont, Coatesville, Collegeville, Drexel Hill, Kennett Square, Media, Norristown, Pottstown, Souderton, Springfield, West Chester, and West Grove, Pennsylvania; Burlington Township, Gibbsboro and Moorestown, New Jersey. The program is also at some of CHOP’s outpatient Neonatal and Cardiac Kids Developmental Follow-up Programs.

In the exam rooms at CHOP’s Reach Out and Read sites, the pediatricians and nurse practitioners encourage parents to read aloud to their children and offer age-appropriate tips and give the young children a brand-new, age-appropriate book at each well visit.

The Reach Out and Read program begins at the child’s newborn checkup, and continues through age 5. Families served by the program read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills, better prepared to achieve to their potential.

Cost Info