Reading with your kids

READING to kids at home before they are of schooling age is beneficial to their education, according to a new study. Whilst many of us may have guessed its significance, researchers from Essex University and University College London have confirmed its importance in a new study.

The research confirms the importance of nurturing children right from their early years in a comfortable and familiar environment.

The research also showed the gap in kids verbal skills at home before they go to schoo, was much larger than initially thought. Some kids aged between three and five had already gained 50 per cent more advanced than other children of the same age. The results confirmed the importance of parents' influence on their children's education.

Further results of the study showed children from poor backgrounds are eight times more likely to have social behavioral problems than children from wealthier family backgrounds.

The study, published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, was among the first to “chart the magnitude of inequalities in the pre-school years occurring in the UK today” according to its researchers.

Professor Yvonne Kelly from Essex University’s Institute for Social and Economic said “We have known that there are clear links between early child development and a wide range of later adult outcomes but no-one has really been able to look closely at the size of the inequalities or to examine just how much effect the home environment really has on children of this age."

She went on to say that kids whose parents work long hours, have little cash and live a poor living environment are not in the best position to create a place where kids can flourish. The research confirms the importance of nurturing children right from their early years in a comfortable and familiar environment.