mother reading infant child baby

Why Reading to your Baby is the Best Investment in their Educational Development (An evidence based approach)

  •  January 15, 2024

Educational videos? Specialty toys? Baby and Me classes? For parents hoping to give their children a head start on speaking and reading, the options may seem endless and overwhelming. There is no shortage of educational toys that claim to improve your child’s intellectual development through the latest and greatest technology. But what really works?

Books are best

You may be surprised to learn that the best way is also the simplest: Read to your baby, every day. A substantial amount of research has indicated that children learn best from live interactions with a parent or caregiver1. However, just speaking to children is not as effective as reading to them, as studies show that “…parent language during book reading contains greater vocabulary diversity and syntactic complexity than parents’ language outside of the book reading context”2.

In other words, the language parents use when reading to their child is richer than that used when simply speaking to them in day to day activities. Children’s books have been referred to by researchers as “lexical reservoirs” that contain “more unique words than adult talk directed at children during conversations”3. Reading simple picture books to a child once a day introduces that child to an estimated 77, 896 new words a year, compared to only 1178 new words a year introduced to children who a rarely read to by a caregiver3. Interestingly, both physical books and books read to children on a device such as a tablet are correlated with positive results. In a study from Argentina, results showed positive associations between electronic books and joint attention in behavioral approach4.

Benefits of reading extend to kindergarten and beyond

Reading to children not only helps build their vocabulary but provides the foundation for later language and literacy outcomes, and is “especially predictive of oral language abilities, kindergarten readiness, and achievement over time and across a broad range of domains”5. In fact, reading to babies at 9 months of age was associated with increased language abilities at both 36 months of age and beyond5.

Language acquisition is a critical and developmental task and informs an integral component of school readiness…which is, in turn, a good predictor of scholastic achievement and high school completion”6. This claim is further supported by research that showed that “early parent book reading utterances predicted children’s later receptive vocabulary, reading comprehension, and internal motivation to read, even when controlling for early parent language input outside of the context of book reading”2. Speaking to babies and children is important but reading to babies often has a greater impact on their long term reading interest and ability, and language development.

What makes reading to babies so effective for later reading ability, language learning, and development?

The secret seems to lie in the joint attention aspect of reading shared books with a caregiver. What exactly is joint attention? “Joint or shared attention refers to the practice of sharing attention (usually visual) by following the focus of another person’s attention or by drawing their attention to one’s own focus of attention”7. Reading is an optimal activity for practicing joint attention with infants and young children. Board books, picture books, and short story books all have illustrations that accompany the text, perfect for pointing and generating additional vocabulary. For infants, the colours can help keep their attention on the book. With older children, illustrations can become points of discussion or be used to help improve understanding of the text.

Verbal labeling and joint attention have both been identified in research as important factors in early vocabulary development in babies and young children. Joint attention is so crucial to the development of receptive vocabulary, that research results report that “having low levels of joint attention in infancy increased the risk of poor receptive vocabulary in the early school years by around 70%”6.

Get the most out of reading to your baby: A step by step approach

Step One

While any reading is beneficial, there are some simple strategies that can help a caregiver get the most out of their reading time with their baby. First, fill your child’s life with books! The number of books in a child’s place of living matters. Households with fewer than twenty books are associated with more than double the risk of a child having low levels of receptive vocabulary6. If the cost of purchasing books or storage are concerns, consider making trips to the library a regular occurrence, starting in infancy. Many libraries have play areas and infant book sections that can make providing a rotating selection of board and picture books easy and affordable.

Step Two

Read to your child daily. Research indicates that at least ten minutes of joint reading per day, started as early as possible in the child’s life and continued at least into early school years is recommended to see long-term benefits. A child that is rarely read to in infancy is more than two and a half times more likely to have poor vocabulary development in later childhood6.

Step Three

How you read to your baby is as important as how often. To maximize the benefits of early reading to babies and toddlers, focus on the joint-attention factor. When reading, aim to make it an interactive activity. Try to not only read the text, but to point to illustrations, define new words in simple language, and talk about the story beyond what is written in the book, otherwise known as engaging in “extra-textual discussions”. These small additions to story time “support children’s growing oral and written language skills”5.

Perhaps the best approach is to make it fun! Babies and toddlers love to learn, and by making books and story time as fun as possible, the chances of raising a child who loves to read are higher. Books do not have to be complicated to be effective in supporting language development. Board books, picture books, and short story books are perfect for introducing children to rich, varied vocabulary, grammatical constructs, and complex ideas in a fun, engaging way.

References

1Neuman, S. B., Kaefer, T., Pinkham, A., & Strouse, G. (2014). Can babies learn to read? A randomized trial of baby media. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(3), 815.

2Ece Demir‐Lira, Ö., Applebaum, L. R., Goldin‐Meadow, S., & Levine, S. C. (2019). Parents’ early book reading to children: Relation to children’s later language and literacy outcomes controlling for other parent language input. Developmental science, 22(3), e12764.

3Logan, J. A., Justice, L. M., Yumus, M., & Chaparro-Moreno, L. J. (2019). When children are not read to at home: The million word gap. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 40(5), 383-386.

4Galvagno, L. G. G., Elgier, A. M., & Azzollini, S. C. (2021). Does Use of Books and Electronic Media Associate to Joint Attention Skills and Temperament during the First Year of Life?. International Journal of Educational Psychology: IJEP, 10(3), 222-246.

5Leech, K. A., McNally, S., Daly, M., & Corriveau, K. H. (2022). Unique effects of book-reading at 9-months on vocabulary development at 36-months: Insights from a nationally representative sample of Irish families. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 58, 242-253.

6Farrant, B. M., & Zubrick, S. R. (2013). Parent–child book reading across early childhood and child vocabulary in the early school years: Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. First Language, 33(3), 280-293.

7Farrant, B. M. (2012). Joint attention and parent-child book reading: Keys to help close gaps in early language development, school readiness and academic achievement. Family Matters, (91), 38-46.