How to Maximize the Brain Benefits of Storytime for Infants via Big Think

How to Maximize the Brain Benefits of Storytime for Infants

Big Think: 12.17.2017 by Teodora Zareva

Not all books are created equal. Especially when it comes to the ones parents read to children to aid their development. A new study from the University of Florida points to an important characteristic to look for in children’s books.

Scientists have been emphasizing the importance of reading books to kids from a very early age. Reading books to infants has been associated with better vocabulary, comprehension and cognitive development later in childhood.

Reading every day helps babies get familiar with sounds, words, and language. It stimulates their curiosity and helps spark their imagination. Later on, books can help children differentiate between the real and imaginary worlds, as well as help them understand difficult experiences and the emotions associated with them.

But it is not just the act of reading that matters. Recent findings presented at the 2017 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting showed that book-reading quality is also important and can predict early reading skills. Book-reading quality includes whether the stories are age-appropriate, whether parents have conversations with the child about the book, and whether they talk about and label the pictures and the emotions of the characters.

New research from the Brain, Cognition and Development Lab at the University of Florida is showing that labeling characters and objects individually is particularly important. It helps babies learn more and leads to more specialized brain responses. This is in contrast to books that refer to objects and characters in a generic way - be it in the storyline or the illustrations of the book.  READ MORE >>