LONG BEACH – Pediatricians not only give shots, dispense medication and make kids feel better, but they now provide prescriptions for success. The Children’s Clinic-(TCC) launched Reach Out and Read today with a ceremony celebrating literacy.

The Children’s Clinic Reach Out and Read is a pediatric early literacy program for children six months to five years of age. Reading begins long before a child enters school. Reach Out and Read – a collaborative with The Children’s Clinic, Beach Cities Reading Association and AmeriCorps – joins pediatricians and nurses with educators to bring books and reading into the lives of children even before formal education begins.

The Program consists of modeling reading by volunteers in the waiting room; training clinicians in the importance of literacy as well as strategies to promote books; and giving children during their well-child visits a developmentally and culturally appropriate book to take home along with instructions to parents on how to read to their child. A recent study showed that parents involved in Reach Out and Read were four times more likely to read or "book share" with children.

"This program gives a kid a real boost and a healthy academic start," says Carl A. Cohn, Ed. D., superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District. "We’ve been looking to the community to help us better prepare kids for starting school, and I can’t think of a better way than The Children’s Clinic new Reach Out and Read program."

The Children’s Clinic Reach Out and Read has been made possible by generous contributions from Reach Out and Read Boston Medical Center, The Earl B. and Loraine H. Miller Foundation and the Bess J. Hodges Foundation.

The Children’s Clinic provides comprehensive health care, health education and promotion to the under-served populations of the greater Long Beach area. TCC serves as a true medical home with 24-hour accessibility to physicians and care to patients who are hospitalized.

"We will not only be protecting our children against measles, mumps, tetanus and other infectious diseases, but we also will be protecting our children from poor academic performance," says TCC Executive and Medical Director, Elisa A. Nicholas, M.D., M.S.P.H.

The Children’s Clinic also provides medical care and counseling for well- child visits; acute and chronic care; laboratory testing; prescribed medications; immunizations; community education and outreach; linkage to community resources and an Evening Adult Clinic.