In between dispensing advice on breast-feeding and immunizations, doctors will tell parents to read aloud to their infants from birth, under a new policy by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
With the increased recognition that an important part of brain development occurs within the first three years of a child’s life, and that reading to children enhances vocabulary and other important communication skills, the group, which represents 62,000 pediatricians across the country, is asking its members to become powerful advocates for reading aloud, every time a baby visits the doctor.
“It should be there each time we touch bases with children,” said Dr. Pamela High, who wrote the new policy. It recommends doctors tell parents they should be “reading together as a daily fun family activity” from infancy.
This is the first time the academy – which has issued recommendations on how long mothers should nurse their babies and advises parents to keep children away from screens until they are at least 2 – has officially weighed in on early literacy education.
While highly educated, ambitious parents who already are reading poetry and playing Mozart to their children in utero may not need this advice. Research shows many parents do not read to their children as often as researchers and educators think is crucial to the development of pre-literacy skills that help children succeed once they get to school.
Reading, as well as talking and singing, is viewed as important in increasing the number of words children hear in the earliest years of their lives. Nearly two decades ago, an oft-cited study found that by age 3, the children of wealthier professionals have heard words millions more times than have those of less educated, low-income parents – giving the children who have heard more words a distinct advantage in school. New research shows these gaps emerge as early as 18 months.
According to a federal government survey of children’s health, 60 percent of American children from families with incomes at least 400 percent of the federal poverty threshold – $95,400 for a family of four – are read to daily from birth to 5 years of age, compared with around a third of children from families living below the poverty line, $23,850 for a family of four.
The pediatricians’ group hopes by encouraging parents to read often and early, it may help reduce academic disparities between wealthier and low-income children as well as between racial groups.
