Early Reading to Children: The Early Bird Catches the Worm

Abstract

© 2016 Hogrefe. Primary caregivers are often encouraged to read to their children from a very young age as we know that reading to children plays a very important role in their literacy development. However, little is known about whether the onset of reading to a child is a specifi c predictor of language abilities when controlling for child and family characteristics. Literacy skills and other cognitive abilities of 746 German children were assessed shortly before school entry and results were compared to those of a recent Australian study. Parents were asked how old their children were when they were fi rst read to and how often they currently read to their children. In both countries, the age at which children were fi rst read to was closely associated with the frequency with which children were read to as pre-schoolers and with their literacy abilities. It was less closely associated with other cognitive competencies. The fi ndings imply that reading books to infants early may contribute meaningfully to a favourable home literacy environment and support children's literacy development.