New Policy Says to Read to Children Daily Starting at Birth

Gone are my days of afternoon lounging while reading People Magazine. I now read Parents Magazine, (if I'm not sleeping,) during the few minutes of downtime I now get daily. Good thing I do, because I came across an article that perfectly answers the question my husband and I have been discussing a lot lately: When should we start reading to Ella before bed each night?

The answer is, we are behind according to a new policy issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics. They advocate reading aloud daily to babies beginning at birth. They say:

Being exposed to books at a young age will also foster early education, help kids prepare for school later in life, and possibly reduce the educational gap between low- and high-income families. There are also several amazing benefits of reading out loud to babies — it strengthens bonding, increases language skills, improves vocabulary, boosts brain activity, and fine-tunes social and emotional recognition — all important things for baby’s development.

The new policy also urges pediatricians and policy makers to make books regularly available for all families. Read all about this new policy here.

Thankfully, we are blessed, and Ella has a ton of books due to the generosity of our amazing family and friends. So, the only thing we need to figure out now is how to stop her from eating all the pages while we read them. Wish us luck.