Clinics link health to childhood reading

Friday, Dec. 30, 2005 | 6:59 a.m.

Forget the lollipop.

Children receiving medical checkups at the Kids Healthcare Clinic and the Lied Outpatient Clinic now receive a free book after their exams in addition to the usual candy reward.

The books are part the medical school's "Reach Out and Read" advocacy program aimed at encouraging parents to read to their children and encouraging children to read early, said Dr. Renu Jain and Dr. Beverly Neyland, pediatric professors with the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

The doctors promote reading starting in the waiting room with volunteers who read to waiting patients. They also talk to parents about reading and hand out the books. Reading to children or even allowing infants to look at the colors or shapes in books greatly enhances their mental development, Jain and Neyland said. Reading at bedtime can also help calm a child and help tighten the bond between parent and child.

"Children can learn earlier and earlier," Jain said. "Their brains are like a sponge."

The program, which runs on donations and grants, received a $4,500 grant from Target Corp. last week to supplement the cost of the books.

The books are available for children ages 6 months to 5 years. Used books also are offered to older children, Jain said.

The Kids Healthcare Clinic sees about 5,000 children each year, and the Lied clinic sees about 14,000, many of them from underprivileged, impoverished families, Neyland said. Books are available in English, Spanish and 59 other languages.

"Economically, books are not high on their lists because they had to buy other things," Neyland said.

CCSN education professor Linda Miller and former student Dorla Lawhn visited China in early December as part of the national People to People Ambassador's program. They were the only teachers from Nevada in the 276-member U.S. delegation.

Miller talked to her Chinese colleagues about using historical places as teaching tools. Her presentation was based on her own research on the historic Mormon Fort in downtown Las Vegas. Lawhn, a teacher at Oaklane Pre-School Academy in Boulder City, participated in a forum on reading and literacy rates, Miller said.

The pair also attended presentations from their Chinese colleagues and visited several historical places including the Great Wall and the great hall in Tiananmen Square, Miller said. She said she was most impressed with the technology being used in Chinese classrooms. The teachers have computers built into their desks.

Miller also said she wished she could transplant the enthusiasm of the Chinese students back home to Las Vegas.

Joint CCSN and UNLV student Michael Sandoval is well on his way to his goal of becoming a master chef.

After first winning the regional competition, Sandoval, 21, recently advanced to the national finals of the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition in California's Napa Valley, where he competed in two days of events.

Sandoval didn't win, but the experience still added another notch to a resume that includes Student Culinarian of the Year and gold and silver medals from the Las Vegas Culinary Challenge and the national American Culinary Federation competition, college officials said.

"If he is the future of our industry, then that future is in good hands," Mark Hopper, chef de cuisine and Sandoval's boss at Thomas Keller's Bouchon Restaurant in the Venetian, said in a statement. "Because he is unbelievably good."

Christina Littlefield can be reached at 259-8813 or at clitte@ lasvegassun.com.