Reach Out and Read National News

Pediatric News

Differences seen by age 2

January 2004
Debra Wood

By a child's second birthday, reproducible cognitive differences exist between children who have been read to and those who have not, Dr. Perri E. Klass said at a conference on care of the sick child sponsored by the Nemours Foundation.

This adds to the evidence that early reading has beneficial effects on children's health and well-being. "If they are different by the age of 2, think how different they will be in school," said Dr. Klass of Boston University.

Literacy development begins at birth, and critical cognitive work goes on during the first 5 years of life through exposure and stimulation. Early experiences shape the neuroarchitecture of the brain. Repetitive use of cognitive skills may help brain connections persist and form the foundation for later competencies.

"We [pediatricians] are probably the only people with child development training and with this orientation who are looking at development and language and reaching all parents in the first years of a child's life," said Dr. Klass, medical director and president of the Reach Out and Read National Center in Somerville, Mass.

Reach Out and Read supports early literacy through interventions at primary care settings, teaching providers strategies for counseling parents to read aloud to children. Books are provided, so the physician can give each patient a new, age-appropriate book at every well-child visit from ages 6 months to 12 years. The organization, founded in 1989, currently has 1,800 sites, has trained 22,000 providers, and gives out 3 million books annually.

When a physician gives the free book at the beginning of the appointment, he or she can use it as a developmental assessment tool, watching how the child reacts to the book. At 6 months, does he try to chew on a corner? Does the 2-year-old child open the book, point to a picture, and say "fire truck"? If so, the clinician does not have to ask if he can put two intelligible words together.

Multiple studies have shown a significant increase in literacy orientation - enjoyment of reading or doing it often - among parents and children who had received the books.

Reading aloud to a child is one of the precursors of reading success. Children who listen to reading exhibit a richer mix of language and more complex sentence structures. Those who have been read to three times a week or more show improved school-readiness skills, such as recognizing letters, counting to 20, writing their own name, and pretending to read a story.

Researchers in Rhode Island assessed the receptive and expressive vocabulary scores of children in two groups. In one group, the parents received books, guidance, and encouragement to read to their children; the other group served as controls. At baseline, both groups performed similarly. After an average of 3.4 well-child visits, there was a 40% increase in the child-centered literacy orientation in the intervention group, compared with 16% in the controls.

Expressive and receptive vocabulary scores were significantly higher in older toddlers in the intervention group, including words not contained in the books they had received.

In a different study, New York University School of Medicine researchers evaluated the language abilities of children receiving books and literacy advice from their physicians, compared with children in a control group.

There were more books in the homes of children in the program.

Toddlers in the intervention group had a significant 8.6-point increase in receptive language scores compared with controls, which equates to 6 months of development; they also had significantly better expressive vocabulary scores.

Difficulty with reading will affect the child throughout life, limiting the ability to hold a job and increasing the risk of needing government assistance.