Reading with 1–2 year olds impacts academic achievement at 8–11 years

Abstract

Parent-child book reading with infants is widely recommended and considered one of the most effective parent-child activities for promoting language and literacy development; however, there is limited evidence that reading books with infants (1–2 years) strengthens later literacy skills. The present study examined the long-term impact of parent-child book reading at 1–2 years with literacy, language, and numeracy skills at 8–11 years. Participants were 3547 infants and their caregivers from a nationally representative study. The number of minutes caregivers reported reading books with their infants (1–2 year) were examined with literacy, language, and numeracy skills on a national assessment program in Grades 3 (8–9 years) and 5 (10–11 years). Covariates included sex, age, race, language background, socioeconomic position, and cognition. Small and positive relationships were found between parent-child book reading at 1–2 years and reading, spelling, grammar, and numeracy scores in Grade 3 (8–9 years) and reading, writing, spelling, and grammar scores in Grade 5 (10–11 years). Infants (1–2 years) whose parents read with them for 11 minutes or more per day had stronger reading, spelling, and grammar skills in Grades 3 and 5.