Books are Good for Kids...

Books are good for kids. There’s no shortage of studies that confirm being read to as a child is enormously beneficial. Yet another study was published in the month of October by Brian Avants, who is assistant professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania.

What makes his study a bit different is that instead of focusing on the act of reading, per se, it addresses the stimulating effect that reading-friendly environment has on childhood cognitive development. “The amount of mentally stimulating content in a child's home — such as the number of books that are around — may predict the structure of the child's brain later in life.”

While this study speaks mainly to the growth and organization of the brain during early childhood, it speaks to the importance of reading itself, and the positive impact of providing an “enriched” home environment on a young child’s overall cognitive development. The results of the study showed that people who grew up in enriched environments during childhood had thinner cortexes later in life which correlates with a higher IQ. In a nutshell, this happens because their brains get used more.

One can’t help but wonder if it’s not simply a question of intelligent parents, but the study's finding held even after the researchers accounted for the parents' IQs. It seems fairly self-evident, but the early years of childhood are an important time for cognitive development. The research suggests that the overall environment is very important, and that it’s a worthwhile endeavor for parents to provide mental stimulation in the environment itself (such as children's books and toys for learning).

Implications:

1. Get some books! Great books for children are easy to come by. Run, don’t walk to the library. If you aren’t sure what to check out, ask a librarian, they know what kids read, and can help you find something good. Invest in a few of the best books out there (ask other parents what their kids read again and again). Hit the thriftstore or a yard sale, you don’t need to buy kids books new. Also be aware that many programs exist that provide free books to families with young children, you simply need to ask around to get connected with them. A good person to ask is your child’s pediatrician, or daycare workers. If you have friends with kids, consider having a book swap—kids get tired of books after a while, and you can trade for something new.

2. Toys: Developmental toys (toys for learning) are not to be confused with those shiny noisy flashy things that clutter up the toy aisle at your local store. We’re also not talking about “computers for kids” (e.g. Leapfrog). Real learning toys are toys that require the kid to do something to make something happen. In other words, the toy doesn’t entertain the child, the child entertains himself by using the toy to accomplish something. Examples of learning toys are puzzles, shape sorters, ring stackers, etc. Some of the best learning toys are not toys at all: they’re ordinary household objects that a child re-purposes. The beauty of learning toys is that most are very open-ended, meaning a child can use them in multiple ways. Because learning toys are fairly simple, they usually aren’t expensive, but sometimes can be harder to find than the flashy noisemakers. Best of all, they don’t require batteries.

3. How to set up the environment: You don’t have to do anything real fancy, or recreate a classroom in your living room: just make sure these two categories of items are accessible to your children so they can help themselves at appropriate times. Most children don’t need to be shown how to play with toys—but if you want to demonstrate how something works, go for it. For the most part though, it’s better to let the child explore toys by themselves. If they’re not ready to use the toy in the way it was designed, they’ll come up with their own way of using it, and that’s fine.

4. Books, of course, require a bit more modeling. The best model is reading to your children regularly—a short daily session is best. If you can do it more than once, even better. (It’s a good pre-bedtime ritual). Almost ALL kids enjoy being read to. If you do it enough, and provide the books, toddlers and young children will often take the books and “read” to themselves during play. Once you see them doing that, a good thing to do is have a set of books handy that they can read or at least look at on their own (without having to ask an adult for help). For most kids, a mix of stories and picture reference books works best. Feel free to let young kids explore books intended for older children-it won’t hurt them any.

How Books at Home May Affect Child's Brain Later, Rachael Rettner, My Health News Daily, 15 October 2012

http://www.livescience.com/23981-parenting-child-brain-development-reading.html