#MakingConnections and Building Brains

As we near the end of 2020 – a year of challenges and unpredictability for all of us – Reach Out and Read-Alabama pediatric healthcare providers continue to prescribe a book and encourage families to read together. This simple connection, when so many connections have been broken, reaps a significant impact by strengthening family bonds and helping children feel loved and secure.

Because of Reach Out and Read-Alabama’s placement within pediatric and primary care, the program remains as one of the only early childhood interventions that continued to reach children and families this year. #MakingConnections begins in the pediatric healthcare providers' offices through prescribing books and support for families to understand their children’s developmental milestones. The connection then continues in the home as parents read books with their young children, fostering healthy brain development and creating strong parent-child bonds that last a lifetime.

When children are cuddled in the lap of a loving caregiver, enjoying a book together, they feel safe and secure. As Erika Crenshaw MD, FAAP, pediatrician at Infants’ and Children’s Clinic in Florence, stated, “The books we are prescribing to our children at checkups provide a sense of normalcy to our families."