A New York Times blog, Bedtime Stories for Young Brains, provides a fascinating discussion of how reading to young children affects their development. We know reading to children from the start is good for children, but the new research explains why.
Dr, John Hutton, the lead author of a recent study, says, “I think that we’ve learned that early reading is more than just a nice thing to do with kids. It really does have a very important role to play in building brain networks that will serve children long-term as they transition from verbal to reading.”
The new evidence provides a boost to the efforts of Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, a Madison pediatrician and a strong advocate of Reach Out and Read, a program that urges doctors to encourage parents to read to their babies from the start.