Blog #5 No App Can Replace Your Lap

Exposure to reading exercises your child’s brain

Compiled by Diane Davies

American Academy of Pediatrics. "Reading with children starting in infancy gives lasting literacy boost: Shared book-reading that begins soon after birth may translate into higher language and vocabulary skills before elementary school." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170504083146.htm (accessed November 21, 2019).

"These findings are exciting because they suggest that reading to young children, beginning even in early infancy, has a lasting effect on language, literacy and early reading skills," said Carolyn Cates, PhD, lead author and research assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine. "What they're learning when you read with them as infants," she said, "still has an effect four years later when they're about to begin elementary school."

As simple and enjoyable as creating a daily reading routine is with your children, research shows on top of that, that what they gain from that reading gives them a boost four years later.  Why not continue the reading routine well into their elementary years or as long as they allow you to, to continue the boost going forward?  It only makes sense to me. 

Happy Reading!