New research shows just how vital it is to share books with small children.
Professors Peter Cooper and Lynne Murray, from the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading traveled to Cape Town's Khayelitsha, one of the South Africa's poorest townships, to train local mothers to share picture books with their infants. The team also trained participants in techniques such as pointing and naming things on the page.
The team discovered that the attention span of the children involved in the weekly training sessions more than doubled. The methods also resulted in increased vocabulary and improved comprehension, both of which can boost the educational prospects of children in the world's poorest places.
"There is a wealth of evidence from high income countries on the benefits to children of early book-sharing." said Professor Cooper. "However, there has been surprisingly little research on the role book-sharing could play in low and middle income countries.
"Effective early book-sharing could play a major role in boosting the educational prospects of children around the world."
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