An article in the Herald Sun is encouraging parents to read to their babies from an early age.

Evidence-based parenting website, the Raising Children Network (RCN) says that listening to a parent’s voice and looking at pictures helps babies with bonding and development. The RCN is encouraging parents to make reading part of daily play, releasing a new guide on suitable books for children aged from four months to five years old.

Dr Sharon Goldfeld, a paediatrician at the Centre for Community Child Health and a scientific advisory board member on literacy for the RCN said international studies had found reading to children from an early age was linked to better educational outcomes and aided children’s literacy and brain development, imagination and stimulated curiosity.

Dr Goldfield said reading to children from an early age laid the foundations for social, communication and interpersonal skills later in life.

“Letting your baby hear your voice by sharing stories and talking will set (them) up for success later in life when (they are) learning to read.”

The Raising Children Network is a consortium between the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, the Parenting Research Centre and the Smart Population Foundation.

Read the article here.

Find out more about the Raising Children Network at http://raisingchildren.net.au