Reuters – Kathryn Doyle
“Reading to small children may help prepare their brains for reading-readiness, a new study suggests. In pre-kindergarten kids who were exposed to more reading at home, brain scans showed different patterns of brain activation than in kids who weren’t read to, researchers found. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that new parents read aloud to their babies from birth to foster early learning. This is the first study to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans specifically to look at cognitive stimulation in the home and the brains of preschool-aged children, according to Dr. John S. Hutton of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. Most studies have involved older kids who may already be struggling with reading, he said. Hutton presented the new results at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Diego on Saturday. His team studied 19 preschoolers ages three to five, including seven kids from low-income households.”(more)