Doctors prescribing books to help children traumatized by Minnesota ICE surge
WCCO
By Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield
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Minnesota (WCCO) — Even though the surge of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis is over, the memories remain. And some adults are especially worried about children in immigrant communities and what they saw.
That’s when a group led by a pediatrician stepped in.
“We hope that reading books with family members reduces stress for kids and their families,” said Kris Hoplin, Reach Out and Read’s executive director.
Reach Out and Read is a unique program where doctors directly hand books and prescribe reading to kids at their check-ups.
“Research shows that families, especially families with young children, really have a trusted relationship with their medical provider,” Hoplin said. “So when that medical provider comes in with a book and they start talking in a family-friendly way about early brain development, building your baby’s brain, the social-emotional sort of bonding that happens when you share books and create a routine around books, families really listen.”
It’s the program that helped get young Johannes well read. He got his first book from his doctor as a baby.
“He’s very proud of like having expertise,” said Ellen Saliares, Johannes’ mom. “He went into kindergarten on the first day and was like, ‘I am Johannes, I’m animal expert.'”
The focus now is to get kids who witnessed the ICE surge hooked on reading, too. They are delivering 10,000 books direct to those kids’ doors.
“We know that kids are resilient, but we want to meet them where they are and help to reduce stress, and so we know that books and shared reading, it does that,” Hoplin said.
Here’s where your spring cleaning could come in. Reach Out and Read is collecting new or gently used books in English, Hmong, Somali and Spanish. You can also donate to the group so they can buy more culturally specific books.
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