MONDAY, Sept. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Read to your little ones. That's the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) prescription for fostering loving, nurturing relationships during early infancy and early childhood -- a time of critical brain development.
" Reading together with young children weaves joyful language and rich interactive moments into the fabric of daily life," said Dr. Perri Klass , a professor of journalism and pediatrics at New York University who is lead author of two updated policy statements from the AAP on literacy. "As a pediatrician and parent, I suggest making books your bedtime routine, using them to connect and wind down after a busy day, and generally building them into life with a young child," she added in an AAP news release.
"It will strengthen the bonds that you hold together, and build your child's developing brain." The new policy statement -- published Sept. 29 in the journal Pediatrics -- is the first update to AAP recommendations since 2014, and it dovetails with a wave of research into early childhood brain development.
It was scheduled for discussion Sunday at the AAP's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., led by Klass and Claudia Aristy , a national board member of the organization Reach Out and Read, which promotes reading to children from birth. The pediatricians' group says shared reading sets the stage for school readiness and provides lifelong benefits.
It helps build the foundation for healthy social-emotional, cognitive, language.