Reach Out and Read: The Final Report and supporting documents (including
Family Literacy Short Survey, FL-SS) are on the Texas Center for the
Advancement of Literacy & Learning Website at: 
http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/index.htm. The research was presented in a
poster session at the 2007 National Center for Family Literacy Annual
Conference. That poster, Looking for Early Literacy: The Reach Out and
Read Assessment Project, and the Executive Summary: Reach Out and Read
Assessment are expected to be on the final report table of contents page
shortly. An article, Finding Early Literacy, will be in the next edition
of TCALL's publication, Literacy Links (index page: 
http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/newsletr/pub07.htm ). Hard copies of all of
these documents are available from the Texas Center for the Advancement
of Literacy & Learning, tcall at coe.tamu.edu or 800-441-READ.

 

Reach Out and Read Assessment (RORA) was a quasi-experimental study
designed to evaluate a ROR program. The evaluation consisted of an oral
(bilingual) survey and a child assessment using the Preschool Language
Scale, 4th Edition instrument. A random sample of 24 families
participated at their child's six-month-old well-baby visit with a
follow-up at the 12-month well-child visit at ROR and control sites. The
RORA parent survey was a revised version of the Before and After Books
and Reading (BABAR) survey, by Robert Needlman, MD.

 

Conclusions from the Reach Out and Read Assessment found that the ROR
program did have a positive impact on the community, reaching the
families most in need of literacy assistance. The sample reflected an
underinsured, predominately Hispanic population. Findings included that
the program was evidence-based and supported the ROR model. The infants
as a group assessed at their appropriate age equivalents. The strongest
finding (ANOVA of the gain scores showed a significantly greater change:
F = 2.69, df = 1,21, p = .10) was that of the ROR parents reading to
their children in a greater proportion by the time the children were 12
months of age when compared to the control parents. By 12 months, 93% of
ROR parents reported reading children's books to their child.

 

Transferable family literacy best practices were developed out of the
study findings and include:

*	Encouraging parents to read early and often to their child.
*	Modeling ways parents can read a book to their child.
*	Repeating the reading message multiple times to the parents.
*	Providing, and assisting the parents in locating, children's
books for the child.

Parent perceptions are vital when educating about why it is important to
read to the very young child. 

 

Jacqueline Gramann, Ed. M.

RORA Principal Investigator
Family Literacy Specialist
Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy & Learning
rubyslippers at tamu.edu

Texas A&M University
4477 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-4477

Web site: www-tcall.tamu.edu
979-845-6615
FAX: 979-845-0952
1-800-441-READ (7323)

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/familyliteracy/attachments/20070612/4bb5b87b/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2743 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/familyliteracy/attachments/20070612/4bb5b87b/attachment.jpe