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13. Andabaka T, Nickerson JW, Rojas-Reyes MX, Rueda JD, Bacic Vrca V, Barsic B. Monoclonal antibody for reducing the risk of respiratory syncytial virus infection in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013 Apr 30;4: CD006602.
14. Prais D, Danino D, Schonfeld T, Amir J. Impact of palivi-zumab on admission to the ICU for respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis: a national survey. Chest. 2005 Oct;128(4):2765-71.
15. Kugelman A, Colin AA. Late Preterm Infants: Near Term But Still in a Critical Developmental Time Period. Pediatrics. 2013;132(4):741-51.
16. Greenberg D, Dagan R, Shany E, Bar-Ziv J, Givon-Lavi N. Increased risk for respiratory syncytial virus-associated, community-acquired alveolar pneumonia in infants
born at 31-36 weeks of gestation. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2014;33:381-6.
17. Adam D et al. Prospective observational study of PICU hospitalizations due to RSV related bronchiolitis in 2008-2012. Presented at HIPAP conference, Tel Aviv Feb 2012.
18. Joseph L et al. Rates of hospitalization for RSV bronchiolitis for all degrees of prematurity in a single medical Center (Shaare-Zedek). Presented at HIPAK conference, Tel Aviv, Feb 2014.
19. Boyce TG, Mellen BG, Mitchel EF Jr, Wright PF, Griffin MR. Rates of hospitalization for respiratory syncytial virus infection among children in Medicaid. J Pediatr. 2000;137:865-70.
Prof. Eli Somekh, President, The Israeli Association of Pediatrics
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NEW EVIDENCES ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF HOME READING ENVIRONMENT ON THE ACTIVATION OF SPECIFIC BRAIN REGIONS SUPPORTING EMERGENT LITERACY
Giorgio Tamburlini
Centro per la salute del Bambino and Nati per Leggere program, Trieste, Italy
Literacy is the ability to utilize written information to expand and share knowledge in order to optimally function in society. Literacy acquisition involves a complex interplay of genetic, neurobiological and environmental factors, only the latter of which are directly modifiable (1). Emergent literacy is defined as the skills, knowledge, and attitudes supporting reading and writing that develop from infancy, when parents are often a child's first and most important teachers. Cognitively constructive home environments, especially prior to school entry, provide an essential foundation for emergent literacy. Parent-child reading exposes the child (and caregi-vers) to a larger variety of words than are otherwise spoken during everyday conversation, especially in low socioeconomic status households (2,3) and has been described as 'the single most important activity for developing the knowledge required for eventual success in reading' (4), explaining much of the variance in language, emergent literacy skills and achievement in children, independent of socioeconomic status. Parent-child reading since early infancy is widely advocated to promote cognitive development, and is recommended by several pediatric associations worldwide.
Although parent-child reading has been shown in behavioral and intervention studies to improve oral language and print concepts, quantifiable effects on the brain have not been previously studied. Hutton et al. (5) found an association between parent-child reading exposure and activation of brain areas supporting mental imagery and narrative comprehension. Nineteen 3- to 5-year-old children were selected from a longitudinal study of normal brain development and completed blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging using an age-appropriate story
listening task, where narrative alternated with tones. Higher reading exposure (using the validated StimQ-P Reading subscale score which measures frequency of reading and number and variety of children's books available at home) was positively correlated (p < 0.05, corrected) with neural activation in the left sided parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex, a "hub" region supporting semantic language processing, controlling for household income. It should be emphasized that these children, although 7 of them were from low income families had on average over a hundred of children's books at home.
The study for the first time demonstrated an association between home reading environment and activation of specific brain regions supporting emergent literacy during the prekindergarten period and provides neurobiological confirmation of the benefits of home reading shown by behavioural studies and provide further support to programs, such as Reach out and Read in the Unites States, Book start in the UK and Natiper Leggere in Italy, where paediatrician and other child professionals encourage parents to read to their babies since the first year of life. These programs are aimed at maximizing caregiver-child engagement through dialogic reading, where the child is stimulated to apply and exercise a broad range of language and executive function abilities.
1. National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. From neurons to neighborhoods: the science of early childhood development. Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. In Shonkoff JP, Phillips DA, editors. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2000.
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2. High PC, Klass P. Literacy promotion: an essential component of primary care pediatric practice. Pediatrics 2014;134:404-9.
3. Karrass J, Braungart-Rieker JM. Effects of shared parent-infant book reading on early language acquisition. J Appl Dev Psychol 2005;26:133-48.
4. Storch SA, Whitehurst GJ. The role of family and home in the literacy development of children from low-income backgrounds. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev 2001;92:53-72.
5. Hutton JS, Horowitz-Kraus T, Mendelsohn AL, De-Witt T, Holland SK and the C-MIND Authorship Consortium. Listening to Stories. Home Reading Environment and Brain Activation in Preschool Children. Pediatrics DOI: 10.1542/peds. 2015-0359.
6. Needlman R, Silverstein M. Pediatric interventions to support reading aloud: how good is the evidence? J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2004;25(5):352-363.
TO ENCOURAGE KIDS' HEALTH, PEDIATRICIANS ADD READING TO ESSENTIAL CHECK-UP LIST
The nation's largest pediatricians group is now formally urging parents to read aloud to their children daily from infancy. The American Academy of Pediatrics says doing so stimulates early brain development and helps build key language, literacy and social skills.
You may wonder about the benefits of reading to your baby. An infant won't understand everything you're doing or why. But you wouldn't wait until your child could understand what you were saying before you started speaking to him or her, right? Nor would you bypass lullabies until your baby could carry a tune or wait until he or she could shake a rattle before you offered any toys.
Reading aloud to your baby is a wonderful shared activity you can continue for years to come — and it's an important form of stimulation. Reading aloud:
• teaches a baby about communication
• introduces concepts such as numbers, letters, colors, and shapes in a fun way
• builds listening, memory, and vocabulary skills
• gives babies information about the world around them Believe it or not, by the time babies reach their first birthday they will have learned all the sounds needed to speak their native language. The more stories you read aloud, the more words your child will be exposed to and the better he or she will be able to talk.
Hearing words helps to build a rich network of words in a baby's brain. Kids whose parents frequently talk/read to them know more words by age 2 than children who have not been read to. And kids who are read to during their early years are more likely to learn to read at the right time.
When you read, your child hears you using many different emotions and expressive sounds, which fosters social and emotional development. Reading also invites your baby to look, point, touch, and answer questions — all of which promote social development and thinking skills. And your baby improves language skills by imitating sounds, recognizing pictures, and learning words.
But perhaps the most important reason to read aloud is that it makes a connection between the things your baby loves the most — your voice and closeness to you — and books. Spending time reading to your baby shows that reading is a skill worth learning. And, if infants and children are read to often with joy, excitement, and closeness, they begin to associate books with happiness — and budding readers are created.
Listen. Different Ages, Different Stages
Young babies may not know what the pictures in a book mean, but they can focus on them, especially faces, bright colors, and contrasting patterns. When you read or sing lullabies and nursery rhymes, you can entertain and soothe your infant.
Between 4 and 6 months, your baby may begin to show more interest in books. He or she will grab and hold books, but will mouth, chew, and drop them as well. Choose sturdy vinyl or cloth books with bright colors and repetitive or rhyming text.
Between 6 and 12 months, your child is beginning to understand that pictures represent objects, and most likely will develop preferences for certain pictures, pages, or even entire stories. Your baby will respond while you read, grabbing for the book and making sounds, and by 12 months will turn pages (with some help from you), pat or start to point to objects on a page, and repeat your sounds.
When and How to Read
Here's a great thing about reading aloud: It doesn't take special skills or equipment, just you, your baby, and some books. Read aloud for a few minutes at a time, but do it often. Don't worry about finishing entire books — focus on pages that you and your baby enjoy.
Try to set aside time to read every day — perhaps before naptime and bedtime. In addition to the pleasure that cuddling your baby before bed gives both of you, you'll also be making life easier by establishing a routine. This will help to calm your baby and set expectations about when it's time to sleep.
It's also good to read at other points in the day. Choose times when your baby is dry, fed, and alert. Books also come in handy when you're stuck waiting, so have some in the diaper bag to fill time sitting at the doctor's office or standing in line at the grocery store. Here are some additional reading tips:
• Cuddling while you read helps your baby feel safe, warm, and connected to you.
• Read with expression, pitching your voice higher or lower where it's appropriate or using different voices for different characters.
• Don't worry about following the text exactly. Stop once in a while and ask questions or make comments on the pictures or text. («Where's the kitty? There he is! What a cute black kitty.») Your child might not be able to respond yet, but this lays the groundwork for doing so later on.
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