Reading to Preschool Children Boosts Language Skills; you may think that this doesn’t seem like anything new.
At The Wigwam Day Nursery, we know how important reading is. Studies have shown that the more adults read to children, the more books there are available to children, the better a child will perform in terms of their later academic and social performance.
However, a great new study shows just how important reading to preschool children is! The study focused on:
- expressive language (use of language to convey meaning to others)
- receptive language (understanding the words and language of others)
- and pre-reading skills
The research, carried out by a team of researchers from Newcastle University, is based upon 16 existing studies from all over the world, over the past 40 years. They found that reading to preschool children has a positive effect on all of the above language skills.
Incredibly, the research found that reading to preschool children boosts language skills by up to eight months.
Lead author, Professor James Law, said, ‘While we already knew reading with young children is beneficial to their development and later academic performance, the eight-month advantage this review identified was striking. Eight months is a big difference in language skills when you are looking at children under the age of five.‘The fact we saw an effect with receptive language skills is very important. This ability to understand information is predictive of later social and educational difficulties. And research suggests it is these language skills which are hardest to change.’
At The Wigwam Day Nursery, we make sure that book reading activities are a part of daily nursery life and that the children have access to a wide range of reading material. Our wonderful staff team read to the children in groups, at one-to-one opportunities and explore all sorts of ideas and activities through regular book activities.
The research is available here.
Thu 31st Jan