Medical X-Press – Staff Writer
“Sending stuffed animals for a sleepover at the library encourages children to read with them, even long after the sleepover took place, say researchers in a new study in Heliyon. For the first time, the study proves stuffed animal sleepovers are an effective way to get children to read. The results also suggest that stuffed animal sleepover programs may help develop children’s prosocial behavior by encouraging them to read the books the stuffed animals had chosen during their sleepover. The researchers behind the new study, from Okayama University, Kanazawa University, Osaka Institute of Technology and Kyushu University in Japan, say they hope their results support the global spread of this approach, which has a positive effect on children’s reading habits.”(more)