Article: Reading To Your Newborn is "Too Early"

Early Learning Early Learning General Discussions
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Link: Reading Aloud From Birth is Too Early

Before you read it, Dan Willingham is the author of the article. He also wrote the book “Why Don’t Students Like School” and is an active cognitive scientist whom I respect. Though his article sounds polemic at first (especially around here at BK), it’s not.

I’m posting it because 1. Subject that is right up our alley, 2. taking a counter-intuitive position (don’t read to your newborn? why not?) 3. If reading to your newborn shouldn’t be recommended, then what is?

Those questions are answered in the article. I’ll post a snippet here for you:

It’s too early because parents of newborns really do have other, more pressing things to think about such as sleeping, and figuring out how family routines change with the new family member. It’s also too early because a newborn probably is not getting that much out of being read to.

Do you agree or disagree?

For the most part, I’d agree with him. For an EL household, I might still agree with him because the time and effort can be applied more efficiently than simple reading. For instance, using flash cards with an infant would get you a lot further than reading a book.

But if you have time and the inclination, then certainly I’d say do both. Willingham takes the aggregate view and worries that the lack of return (results) will wear out a lot of the less dedicated parents.

Did this change your mind, or do you still agree or disagree?

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Thanks for sharing, I’m going to share this article on facebook.
Moderation is key, as always. If a parent has to choose between sleep and reading to the baby, well let them choose sleep. But that doesn’t make the advice to read to the baby bad advice. I wouldn’t tell someone not to exercise because it’s more important to eat a healthy diet. It’s not an either/or thing, and never was. I object to this objection. :biggrin:

Do they get much out of being read to? Of course they do. A baby is perfectly capable of feeling love and affection. Reading is a service we give our babies. Eye tracking exercises, and flashcards accomplish the same thing. I don’t read Shakespeare to Philip, I do word flashcards. And he loves them, and showed interest from a few days old. But I don’t feel as anxious to get her reading that I do with Ruth, who I can see and measure my progress with. That’s human nature, we like to see and measure our results. But even if we can’t measure the day-to-day progress, it doesn’t mean it’s not effective.

Anyway, that’s just my opinion. I’d love to see what other people think.

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I havent read the article. But I think reading to a newborn is a great way to build a healthy routine. At night we do bathtime, story and then nurse to sleep. This helped Zakari sit for stories as a toddler great compare to his brother who I did not read to as young(or at least as regularly as Zakari)