Literacy Promotion: An Essential Component of Primary Care Pediatric Practice: Policy Statement

Abstract

Reading together often with infants and young children strengthens their relationships with parents and caregivers at a critical time in child development, stimulating brain circuitry and early attachment. A positive parenting practice, shared reading helps build the foundation for healthy social-emotional, cognitive, language, and literacy development, setting the stage for school readiness and providing enduring benefits across the life course. Pediatric physicians and advanced care providers have a unique opportunity to encourage parents and caregivers to establish routines and enjoy conversations around books and stories with their children beginning in infancy. Research has demonstrated that parents read and children learn when pediatricians offer literacy promotion as a practical and evidence-based primary prevention strategy in primary care practice to support early brain and child development. This supports families with a strengths-based approach, shaping a child's life trajectory and helping mitigate stress and adverse experiences. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that pediatricians encourage shared reading, beginning at birth and continuing at least through kindergarten, as a strategy for supporting parents and caregivers, enhancing foundational relationships, promoting positive language-rich interactions, and helping families create nurturing and stimulating home environments. The integration of literacy promotion into pediatric resident education is crucial to achieve that goal and thus is also essential. The AAP supports advocacy toward establishing public and private funding for diverse high-quality, developmentally appropriate children's books in the languages preferred by the family to be provided at pediatric health supervision visits to all children but especially to children living in underresourced communities. This statement is supported by multiple AAP policies and implementation resources, including the accompanying "Literacy Promotion: An Essential Component of Primary Care Pediatric Practice: Technical Report."