Help at the Book Store

If you are like me, you love walking into a book store, but once you get there you have no idea what to get for your kiddos or grandkiddos.  Guess what!  There's a study for that!  This study was funded by the National Science Foundation and they determined that books for littles that include individual-level names (names of the characters, places, objects, etc.) promoted language. 

The infants whose parents read the individual-level names spent more time focusing and attending the images, and their brain activity clearly differentiated the individual characters after book reading. 

“There are lots of recommendations about reading books to babies, but our work provides a scientific basis for these recommendations and suggests that the type of book is also important,” she said. "Shared reading is a good way to support development in the first year of life,” “It creates an enjoyable and comforting environment for both the parents and the infant and encourages parents to talk to their infants.”
So the moral of the story is, find books with individual names of the people, objects, places, etc. or when you are "reading" to your kiddo - just talk about the people, objects, places, etc.  Use specific language.  Don't rush.  And start young!

You can read more about the study here: http://news.ufl.edu/articles/2017/12/certain-books-can-increase-infant-learning-during-shared-reading-study-shows.php