Mother-Child Bookreading in Low-Income Families: Correlates and Outcomes During the First Three Years of Life.

Although reading to preschoolers has been shown to influence their later language and cognitive development, few studies have examined these relationships for children under age 3. Researchers studied over 2,500 low-income English- and Spanish-speaking families across the country who were participating in the Early Head Start evaluation. About half of the mothers reported reading daily to their children, and frequency was higher among white mothers than other ethnic groups, as well as among mothers of girls, firstborn children, and children in the Early Head Start program. English-speaking mothers who read to their children at a very early age had 2-year-olds with greater language comprehension; larger, more expressive vocabularies; and higher cognitive scores. Spanish-speaking mothers who read to very young children every day had 3-year-olds with greater language and cognitive development. The researchers note that language-oriented interventions for vulnerable children should begin earlier than has been generally proposed.