P2.125: Bridging the Multilingual Gap: How Reach Out and Read Helps Support Diverse Families

Background: Reach Out and Read is a national organization that strives to promote early literacy and nurture child-parent connections through the distribution of books to children aged 6 months to 5 years during their pediatric well visits. However, understanding how these programs serve diverse patients, especially multilingual families, is limited. This study aims to examine Read Out and Read book utilization and parental perceptions of bilingualism based on the Perceptions of Bilingualism Plus Scale. We hypothesize that the frequency that Reach Out and Read books are used on a daily basis will differ between multilingual and monolingual households.

Methods: Voluntary surveys were completed by 55 caregivers of children at a designated Reach Out and Read healthcare facility by CITI trained pediatricians. Eligibility criteria included: parents of children between 6 months and 5 years of age, the ability to speak/read English and/or Spanish, and not having previously been enrolled. Surveys were entered into the REDCap database. Data analysis of Perceptions of Bilingualism Plus Scale was performed with JASP statistical software using spearman's correlations. Relative incidence and frequency were used to compare multilingual versus monolingual book usage and library attendance dependent on race (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic).

Results: Of the caregivers surveyed, 31 (62.0%) identified as Hispanic or Latino, and 33 (67.3%) spoke two or more languages at home. Among the non-Hispanic/Latino group, 55.6% of multilingual households used the provided books daily compared to 22.2% of monolingual households (Relative Incidence [RI]=2.5).

For the Hispanic/Latino group, 33.3% of multilingual households used the provided books daily compared to 28.6% of monolingual households (RI=1.2).

Among the non-Hispanic/Latino group, 50.0% of multilingual households visited a library at least once a month compared to 33.3% of monolingual households (RI=1.5)

For the Hispanic/Latino group, 45.8% of multilingual households visited a library at least once a month compared to 14.3% of monolingual households (RI=3.2).

There was a positive correlation between total score on the Perceptions of Bilingualism Plus Scale and how often books provided to households are reported to be used at home (rs=0.33, n=47, p=0.02). There was a significant difference between total score on the Perceptions of Bilingualism Plus Scale and race (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic) (U=376, p=0.04, effect size=0.35).

Conclusion: We focused on investigating reading behaviors, with attention on the impact of the Read Out and Read program on multilingual families. Based on these findings, multilingual households used Reach and Read Out books more often and possessed more positive reading behaviors (e.g., read books every day; visit the library at least once a month) than monolingual households. This trend was present in both Hispanic and non-Hispanic groups. Further analysis with larger sample sizes will help clarify the extent of these influences.