Educational television programs, instructional videos, and even some computerized games claim to help children develop language skills

Nutrition Health Review, Summer, 2004

EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION PROGRAMS, instructional videos, and even some computerized games claim to help children develop language skills. But doctors at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say that there is only one tried-and-true method to help infants speak and understand language: reading to them.

"When parents come to me with a child who has delayed language skills, the first thing I do is ask them how much they read to the child," says Dr. Paul Bauer, assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. "Many times helping a child understand language and helping them develop speech is a matter of taking time to read to them."

In fact, parents should begin reading to children as young as six months old, Dr. Bauer says. Although infants would not know the meaning of many words, hearing the sounds helps their brains develop critical language skills. Hearing someone reading aloud enhances children's pronunciation of words, expands their vocabulary, and begins programming the brain for more advanced speech and reading.