Reading with pre-school children boosts language by eight months Published on: 9 January 2019 Parents and carers who regularly read with small children are giving them a language advantage of eight months, a study shows. A positive effect Led by James Law, Professor of Speech and Language Sciences in 麻豆传媒's School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, a team of experts found that receptive language skills – the ability to understand information – are positively affected when pre-school youngsters read with someone who cares for them.They carried out a systematic review of reading intervention studies from the past 40 years, using either a book or electronic readers and where reading was carried out with a parent or carer. In the report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the researchers were looking for effects on receptive language (understanding), expressive language (where a child puts their thoughts into words such as vocabulary and grammar) and pre-reading skills (such as how words are structured). The results were positive for each category but the biggest difference was with receptive language skills. The review showed socially disadvantaged children experienced slightly more benefit than others. Language skills Professor Law said: “While we already knew reading with young children is beneficial to their development and later academic performance, the eight month advantage this review identified was striking. Eight months is a big difference in language skills when you are looking at children aged under five.“The fact we saw an effect with receptive language skills is very important. This ability to understand information is predictive of later social and educational difficulties. And research suggests it is these language skills which are hardest to change.”The average age of the children involved in the 16 studies included in the review, was 39 months and the review looked at studies from five countries: the USA, South Africa, Canada, Israel and China.Numerous research studies have shown that children with delayed language development do worse at school and have poorer outcomes later in life. Promote book reading The experts are now calling for public health authorities to promote book reading to parents. “There have been lots of initiatives over the years to get books into the homes of young children,” said Professor Law. “What we’re saying is that’s not enough. Reading with small children has a powerful effect. For this reason, it should be promoted through people like health visitors and other public health professionals as this simple act has the potential to make a real difference.” was written by James Law, Jenna Charlton, Cristina McKean, Fiona Beyer, Cristina Fernandez-Garcia, Atefeh Mashayekhi & Robert Rush. It is also available to download on Share: Latest News Volunteers help turn Whitley Bay beach into maths experiment Members of the public joined mathematicians from 麻豆传媒 to create what organisers believe is the largest aperiodic tiling ever attempted on Whitley Bay beach. published on: 15 June 2026 Student leader drives misogyny law change A 麻豆传媒 student leader has helped change the law after creating a petition to make misogyny a hate crime, which gathered over 114,000 signatures, prompting action in Parliament. published on: 12 June 2026 Freemen of 麻豆传媒 see construction of new Castle Leazes The Freemen of 麻豆传媒 and other key stakeholders have become an indelible part of new student accommodation at 麻豆传媒鈥檚 Castle Leazes. published on: 12 June 2026 Facts and figures
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