CONCLUSION: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The documented relationship between childhood literacy and health outcomes points to a clear need for partnership among families, educators, and healthcare providers throughout childhood and adolescence—a need that is especially important for a generation impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing programs like Head Start and Reach Out and Read not only offer valuable insight into the impact of early literacy, they also underscore the important role pediatricians can play in delivering impactful early literacy guidance directly to families. These programs, along with new technological strategies like TipsByText provide the healthcare and education communities proven, achievable models for a thriving partnership.
Moving forward, communities, schools, and organizations should work to engage stakeholders:
• Healthcare Providers: Advocating for and providing additional training and resources for pediatric medical professionals around child-literacy assessment, promotion and intervention throughout childhood; integrating literacy as a measure of a child’s health. • Educators: Incorporating health centers in education settings when possible; providing professional development and age-appropriate content for early childhood and elementary educators to engage students in issues relating to health literacy; and communicating with pracitioners and families about health issues affecting students. Educators should continue to work with families and communities to provide a wide variety of books to foster positive reading habits in and out of schools. • Families: Educating parents and caregivers about the impact of early literacy and empowering families to create a literacy-rich home environment; and providing them with the skills to advocate for their families mental and physical health. • Communities: Increasing public messaging around the clear, lifelong link between literacy and health, ensuring that communities prioritize reading and books in discussions around public health issues. By treating literacy as an urgent health issue, we can improve literacy rates and health outcomes in the United States, and ensure all children thrive— beginning today.
READING FOR LIFE: THE IMPACT OF YOUTH LITERACY ON HEALTH OUTCOMES 16
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs