Rutgers Researchers Expand Touchpoints to Enhance Literacy Promotion

Pediatricians at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School find that combining literacy promotion with community assistance programs improves developmental outcomes for Latino children

Literacy promotion programs, combined with community-based support programs, can affect literacy development in Latino children from birth to 18 months of age, Rutgers researchers have found.

"Our study is one of the first of its kind to test a cross-sector approach," said Manuel E. Jimenez, associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and lead author of the study. "We found that aligning these supports for families resulted in more responsive parent-child interactions and better social-emotional health for children compared with standard literacy promotion alone."

The results showed that combining literacy promotion programs with referrals to Connecting New Jersey resulted in significant improvements in verbal responsiveness and social-emotional development nine months after enrollment.

Less than a third of U.S. fourth graders read at a proficient level or above, according to the Nation's Report Card. A 2025 study in the Journal of School Psychology found there are literacy disparities among racial and ethnic groups, with Black and Hispanic children more likely to experience early reading difficulties than their white and Asian peers.

Literacy promotion programs, such as Reach Out and Read - which enlists the support of primary care providers to encourage families to make reading a part of their routines - can improve reading and communication skills. However, evidence has shown that additional strategies, such as text messaging caregivers in between visits to the doctor, can produce even better results.

The study in Pediatrics, a publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics, included three intervention strategies. The first was a literacy promotion program that included free books and modelled reading during preventive visits beginning at six months of age. The second added text messaging for a duration of 18 months. The third combined the latter two with referrals to Connecting New Jersey (CNJ), a Help Me Grow affiliated statewide initiative that connects families with support services for young children.

The results showed that combining literacy promotion programs with referrals to Connecting New Jersey resulted in significant improvements in verbal responsiveness and social-emotional development nine months after enrollment. The intervention also demonstrated enhanced social-emotional development 18 months after enrollment.

"This study provides evidence that integrating primary care-based literacy promotion with systems-based efforts in the community to support children and families can optimize its impact on relational and developmental health," Jimenez said.

Doctors at RWJMS are working with Reach Out and Read at the local, state and national levels to help put the study's findings into practice by connecting caregivers with helpful resources and improving the way Reach Out and Read is delivered. For example, an earlier study from this six-year project that was supported by a $3 million award from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found that clinician modelling (when clinicians demonstrate how to read with children) during literacy promotion was associated with higher quantity, quality, and diversity of home reading activities. Jimenez and colleagues are working with Reach Out and Read to ensure modelling is incorporated into training throughout the national network.

"The programs we worked with in this study are active in New Jersey and across the country and already serve thousands of children," Jimenez said. "Pediatric clinicians who want to better support children and their families can work with these programs as actionable next steps to promote literacy development among all children."

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