Teach Mom to Read and the Kids Will Follow | Poverty in America | Change.org

Teach Mom to Read and the Kids Will Follow | Poverty in America | Change.org

Teach Mom to Read and the Kids Will Follow

by Charlotte Hill

Watch out, mothers — you may start receiving homework assignments from your kids' schoolteachers. A new study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) finds that when children are young, the "most critical factor" to their academic success is not income level, ethnicity, or even school demographics. It's their mothers' reading level.

As kids grow older and start spending more time outside the home, other factors take precedence; "neighborhood income," for example, "was the most important factor for children ages 8 to 17." But for kids under 8, the fact remains: mom's book smarts are crucial to performing well in kindergarten and beyond.

"The findings indicate that programs to improve maternal literacy skills may provide an effective means to overcome the disparity in academic achievement between children in poor and affluent neighborhoods," explainedDr. Rebecca Clark, chief of the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).