Pediatric Resident Akron Children's Hospital Akron, Ohio, United States
Background: Educating families about the benefits of early childhood literacy while providing age-appropriate books is an evidence-based intervention that correlates strongly with the academic success and resiliency of young children. “Reach Out and Read” is a well-validated program for literacy promotion in the primary care setting. However, this has not been systematically implemented in the ER setting to date. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, limited literacy education was often associated with lower socioeconomic status (SES). These populations were also known to have greater ER utilization and less outpatient primary care follow-up. The COVID-19 pandemic deepened these disparities in access. Our project sought to focus on these marginalized populations and address disparities in access to early childhood literacy in the ER. The Ohio Governor's Imagination Library also funds free, monthly book distribution to preschoolers across Ohio. Our initiative targeted same-day enrollment into the program of our ER patients.
Objective: Our pilot project showed the feasibility of 1) Providing literacy coaching while delivering high-quality books to at-risk populations 2) Recruiting families to the Imagination Library to enrich the child’s home literacy environment
Design/Methods: Our program was implemented in early 2021 to address challenges in access to literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. We implemented a novel expansion of the “Reach Out and Read” toolkit to the acute care setting of two freestanding pediatric hospital emergency departments in northeast Ohio. Eligibility criteria focused on populations with greater risk for low home literacy. Inclusion criteria included patients ages 0-8 years with one or more of the following: uninsured/public insurance, delayed well-child care, and/or non-English primary language. Medical providers and child life specialists completed a one-hour training and reviewed the ED RoR toolkit preparing them to coach parents on dialogic reading with their children.
Results: Over 1700 books in over 1200 discrete households have been distributed to children as part of this pilot project. Over 564 families have been enrolled in the Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library during their pediatric ED visits since our recruitment program launched in February 2021.Conclusion(s): Targeting families seeking care in the ED- often from populations with inconsistent outpatient well-child care- offers another clinical setting for a focused literacy intervention. Our advocacy-driven pilot project has demonstrated the feasibility of literacy promotion in a tertiary care pediatric emergency department. Number of Books Distributed by Age Category ED Book Bank Books distributed by month through November 2021
