This is Your Child’s Brain on Reading
CNN recently reported on research that looked at young children who underwent brain scans while listening to a story. The research found that when parents read to their children, the difference not only shows in children’s behavior and academic performance, but it also shows in their brain activity.
The report explains that when young children were being read a story, a number of regions in the left part of the brain became active. These are the areas involved in understanding the meaning of words and concepts and also in memory, and the study shows that the development of this area starts at a very young age. The researchers also found that the brain activity in this region was higher among the children whose parents reported creating a more literacy-friendly home. Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, program director of the Reading and Literacy Discover Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and one of the authors of the study is quoted as saying, “The more you read to your child the more you help the neurons in this region to grow and connect in a way that will benefit the child in the future in reading.”
Reading educators have long-known the positive affect that early reading to children has on developing their language skills and preparing them to learn to read and write once they enter school. This new research sheds some light on what is actually happening in the brain to make this happen.
Here are a few of my past blog entries that are related to this topic:
Joan Sedita
Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.
Its a great post! Thanks for sharing
It’s great that you talked about how reading to kids helps them improve their brain activity. Recently, my sister mentioned she’s dealing with development issues with her son. In my opinion, reading it’s an important part of a kid’s childhood, so I’ll be sure to tell my sister about this. Thanks for the information on reading to kids and their effects.