According to a recent study by experts at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, daily reading boosted language development in infants 12 months of age and younger.
The results of the study, which is based on well-established research on early language development in toddlers 12 months and older, showed that infants who were consistently read to every day, starting at two weeks old and continuing until nine months old, showed improved language scores.
The findings were published in December in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
During the randomized study, parents and guardians were given a collection of 20 picture books for kids that had been chosen to encourage interaction with print media and early language development.
One book each day is an easy goal for new families to try. To see that there is a measurable improvement in speaking and understanding before one year old is very exciting.
Professor Adam M. Franks
Enrolled families agreed to have their infants evaluated for expressive and receptive language at their well-child visits, and they also committed to reading at least one book per day.
“One book each day is an easy goal for new families to try. To see that there is a measurable improvement in speaking and understanding before one year old is very exciting,” said Adam M. Franks, M.D., professor of family and community health at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and corresponding author on the study.
In addition to Franks, physicians Callie Seaman, M.D., and William Rollyson, M.D., and researcher Todd Davies, Ph.D., teamed with Emily K. Franks, a speech-language pathologist, to co-author the article.
“While our team is excited about our findings, the real winners are the participating children and families in this area that have been benefited from the bonding experience of experiencing this co-reading through their participation in the project,” Franks said.
The purpose of this study’s expansion is to examine the advantages for babies of moms who have opioid use disorders and are going through detox.
This work is supported by a rural research grant from the Robert C. Byrd Center for Rural Health.
