Reading Early May Increase Brain Power

As if I needed to have one more reason to encourage parents to read to their children!

A new study from the University of Edinburgh finds that developing early reading skills may lead to higher intelligence scores later on. This longitudinal study compared twins over the course of many years, and found that the twin whose early reading ability was stronger scored higher in intelligence testing over the course of years, even at age 16.

Of course, the best reason to read to your young children is to love the time together, and show your young one the joys of reading and learning. But in case you are motivated or intrigued by this interesting study, published in a reputable research journal, I thought I'd share it!

Here is a link to a description of the study.


  http://www.dailyrx.com/good-early-reading-skills-correlated-higher-intelligence-later 

Take a (Picture) Walk

It might be time to lose the words—for now anyway. 

Enjoy a leisurely stroll through the pictures of a book. Take your time. The idea behind a picture walk is that you go through a book’s illustrations before reading it in order to get an idea of what is included in the book.

The discussion may be engaging enough that you don’t get around to actually reading the book—in that sitting. Have your child tell you what she sees. Ask her what is happening and listen to what she see says. Once you actually read the book, you can compare what you both predicted the book to be about to what it actually turned out to be.

Enjoy the journey!