Reach Out and Read

Embedding ERH Into Pediatric Practice

Reach Out and Read’s field-leading network of pediatric care providers leverages the well-child visit to encourage parent/caregiver-child engagement. 

Our exclusive partnership with Reach Out and Read marks the start of COMBO National: a nationwide expansion of our foundational parent/caregiver-child health study. 

Most academic early relational health studies are limited to families who live near universities. But through Reach Out and Read’s ERH-focused clinical network serving nearly 5 million families across America, we’ve launched the pilot phase of COMBO National. Currently in 6 states, we plan to expand enrollment to as many states as possible. 

Two Arms, Working Together

The Center for ERH leads the clinical research component of COMBO National: studying the wide spectrum of early childhood relationships, from every angle, to understand the impacts of ERH on development and health outcomes. 

Reach Out and Read leads COMBO National’s implementation research (designed in partnership with COMBO and Nurture Connection’s ERH Learning Community) to translate the center’s clinical findings into universal pediatric practice, in partnership with families and care providers. 

Training Clinicians To Measure a Key Component of ERH

One core initiative of this partnership is the Lens of Emotional Connection training, co-developed with Reach Out and Read, in collaboration with the Stanford d.school. 

This simple training enables pediatricians to recognize the elements of emotional connection during well-child visits, and layer the observation of emotional connection into their delivery of the Reach Out and Read model of pediatric care. 

Following their successful pilot, Reach Out and Read will soon begin implementing the training across their clinical network, taking a meaningful step toward integrating relational health into the universal fabric of pediatric practice. 

Partnering With Experts Together

Through Reach Out and Read, the center’s partnership work also extends to Stanford University, Duke University, Rutgers University, New York University, Georgetown University, the University of Miami, the University of California San Francisco, Auburn University; Boston Children’s Hospital (Harvard) and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; the Institute for Child Success and Zero to Three.