Phenomenon: The American Academy of Pediatrics and Canadian Pediatric Society recommend that pediatricians incorporate literacy promotion during well child care, but literacy promotion education during pediatric training remains understudied. We sought to understand how literacy promotion training is currently implemented in pediatric residency programs from the perspective of program directors. Approach: We conducted semistructured interviews with all 9 residency program directors in 1 state. We analyzed data iteratively coding transcripts using an immersion/crystallization approach to identify themes. Findings: We achieved saturation after 9 interviews with 11 participants. We identified 3 major themes: (a) Residency programs rely on an existing primary-care-based literacy promotion intervention (Reach Out and Read) and the resident continuity clinic for literacy promotion training; (b) program directors encourage early and repeated exposure to facilitate literacy promotion education; and (c) service obligations, content specifications, and pressure on faculty create competing time demands that function as key barriers to literacy promotion training. Insights: Residency program directors used an existing, widely used intervention and the infrastructure provided by continuity clinics to facilitate training on literacy promotion, a relatively new pediatric care standard. Additional work is needed to overcome the barriers identified by program directors.

Ready and Healthy for Kindergarten is a Spanish/English multilingual family involvement program that is grounded in sociocultural and family literacy theories since it focuses on health and literacy development. The program’s development reflects a collaborative partnership of teachers, pediatricians, families, and an advisory board of multilingual parents dedicated to preparing preschoolers and their families for kindergarten. Health themes are presented to introduce foundational literacy and social-emotional skills, and the program comprises eight one-hour virtual sessions intended to engage both children and their families through active participation in learning. The program highlights how parents, educators, and pediatricians can come together to align their expertise and impact family knowledge around child development needs. With this strong collaboration when designing and implementing the Ready and Healthy for Kindergarten program, we were able to successfully provide guidance and support for families, which helped them to establish routines that promote health and well-being, along with some literacy skills.