Study shows reading boosts childhood development

Child development experts have published a report that calls for parents to follow a "five-a-day" approach to parenting that includes spending 15 minutes a day reading to kids.

According to research by the think-tank CentreForum, parents can get their children off to the best start in life by being proactive in the early years of life and following their five-step programme.

The author or the research, Chris Paterson, said that parents should spend a quarter of an hour reading to their offspring, play on the floor with them for 10 minutes, talk to them for at least 20 minutes without the TV being on, give regular praise and feed them nutritious foods.

The addition of a course of private tuition for primary school children after the early years work set out by CentreForum would help drive home the benefits.

"Drawing directly on the science of early child development, such a Five-a-Day For Child Development campaign could successfully identify a series of small, manageable steps based on easily graspable, tangible and readily packageable 'hooks' that would enable the key messages to take hold in parents' minds," said the report.