Abstract
Reading to—and with—young children may amplify the language they hear more than just talking. Researchers put together a selection of books from teacher recommendations, Amazon best sellers, and other books that parents are likely to be reading at bedtime. In comparing the language in books to the language used by parents talking to their children, the researchers found that the picture books contained more “unique word types.” Books contain a more diverse set of words than child-directed speech. This would suggest that children who are being read to by caregivers are hearing vocabulary words that kids who are not being read to are probably not hearing. So reading picture books with young children may mean that they hear more words, while at the same time, their brains practice creating the images associated with those words—and with the more complex sentences and rhymes that make up even simple stories.—Montag, J. L., Jones, M. N., & Smith, L. B. (2015). The words children hear: Picture books and the statistics for language learning. Psychological Science, 26, 1489–1496.