Claim: Reading to Your 1- and 2-Year Old Boosts Their Vocabulary

Question

This article from U.S. News states that reading to your 1-2 year old child will boost their vocabulary. The original study that the article is pulling from does confirm that there is a positive association between shared reading and vocabulary, shared reading meaning that the parent/guardian is reading with the child. The parent reading with the child appears to be an important factor in improving vocabulary, as well as the diversity of the vocabulary in the books.

Article: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-10-03/reading-to-your-1-and-2-year-old-boosts-their-vocabulary-study-finds

Study: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-child-language/article/associations-between-shared-book-reading-daily-screen-time-and-infants-vocabulary-size/510AE5663835A8EAE49CF0E51456DA04

Comments

This is a great point to put in public view. With the modern creation of fast-paced and addicting content like cocomelon, parents read to there kids less because putting a video in front of them is so much easier at the trade off of being less productive to there kids.

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I believe you did a very thorough job in finding a backing source for the original claim you came across. I liked how you included a study conducted by a legitimate university. I also found backing info such as that reading to toddlers also boosts general cognitive ability, language development, attention span, etc: https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/reading-toddler.html#:~:text=Reading%20to%20toddlers%20often%20(if,your%20lap%20when%20you%20read.

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I think that this is a good point to bring up with the high development of technology. The source that you chose is a reliable one and I very much enjoyed that you also linked the study that the article was based on to further verify the article. I also found some more infor on the significance to reading to children.
https://childmind.org/article/why-is-it-important-to-read-to-your-child/#:~:text=What%20are%20the%20benefits%20of,parents%20and%20children%20to%20connect.

Answer 1

This is true. The study you used is very reliable and I was able to find another study that had very similar results from the Child Mind Institute. Which is a leading non profit in the study of children's developing minds. All their articles are written by child psychologists and proof read by child psychologists

Why Is It Important to Read to Your Child?

 Your claim is unbias and the sources given both align with what you have said. Great Job

Comments

This is a super good topic to spread information on to help other parents encourage the development of their children's minds. Your website proves everything you stated.

Answer 2

This is true! Reading to your young children is incredibly important and beneficial to them for a number of reasons, including vocabulary skills. This young age is a critical time to build language and literacy skills. Through reading together with a parent, toddlers learn to associate shapes, letters, images, anything that they can visually see in the book, with spoken language. Even if the child cannot read themselves, they greatly benefit from the spoken language as they are being read to. By reading to your toddler, you expose them to a greater variety of vocabulary that they may not typically experience through normal conversations. Typically, we do not speak with the same patterns in conversations as we do while reading, using incomplete sentences and slang. Through following along together while reading, parents expose their young children to articulated speech, grammar, and a wider variety of vocabulary. They are also able to easier build connections in their brain with communication and language when assisted by their parental figure. So overall, reading to your young children is incredibly beneficial for a number of reasons. With vocabulary specifically, it encourages greater understanding of language and exposes them to a wide variety of vocabulary.

Sources:

https://www.uwsummitmedina.org/benefits-of-early-literacy-why-read-to-your-baby/

https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/publication/read-it-again-benefits-reading-young-children

Answer 3

This post is true. First of all, it uses a credible study and I was also able to find other sources to support the claim. 

According to https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/reading-babies.html#:~:text=Hearing%20words%20helps%20to%20build,read%20at%20the%20right%20time. "Hearing words helps to build a rich network of words in a baby's brain. Kids whose parents talk and read to them often know more words by age 2 than children who have not been read to. And kids who are read to during their early years are more likely to learn to read at the right time". 

According to, https://www.uwsummitmedina.org/benefits-of-early-literacy-why-read-to-your-baby/, "Early reading benefits infants and toddlers by exposing them to a wide variety of words they might never have encountered in everyday conversations. And that primes their brains for developing a broad, rich vocabulary."

Answer 4

Children especially in their early years of life are very objective to the things and overall world around them. Being able to communicate or try to get language across to a 1 or 2 year old can be challenging but the struggle of it could also benefit the way they act as they grow up and the levels they can succeed in. In many studies on children and their development, it has been proven that reading and talking to your young children and toddler at younger ages can lead to a widened vocabulary. The Cleveland Clinic has an outlook that is very similar as they express how babies mimic the expressions, sounds, and things that their parents do so they will more then likely explore these ideas and not only be able to possibly get your child ahead of the curve in some ways, but bond, and establish routines and life values with them in a friendly, comfortable way. 

Answer 5

A study that was conducted by University Of Oslo engaged with parents and got information about reading habits, they found that "Children who were read to more often by a parent or caregiver exhibited a stronger vocabulary than their peers who were not. Furthermore, those who spent more time on screens had a smaller vocabulary by the age of two." It can help them develop great speaking skills at such a young age and can expand exposure to new words. With that, I say that this claim is true.

https://www.thebump.com/news/shared-reading-increases-vocabulary

https://childmind.org/article/why-is-it-important-to-read-to-your-child/