Immigrant Parents Less Likely To Read To Their Children: 3 Reasons Why This Needs To Change

A new study has found a possibly explanation as to why children of minority backgrounds are behind in their language development: Their parents do not read to them. The Stanford University study found that immigrants of Hispanic (and Asian) background were less likely to read to their young children in comparison to white non-Hispanic parents.

“I think there’s enough research that reading to children early on prepares them better for school,” senior author Dr. Fernando Mendoza told Reuters Health. “Early reading enlarges vocabulary and becomes a tool for many other kinds of learning later on in school.”

According to Reuters, the researchers surveyed over 15,000 parents of both U.S.-born and foreign-born background. They found that after taking into low income and education levels (which also correlate with less reading in a household), immigrant parents tend to read less with their children.

There are several reasons as to why reading to your children is important -- the first and foremost reason is that a Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research study found that children who are read to three to fives times a week are ahead of their peers in terms of reading ability and experts believe reading is associated with a higher vocabulary.

But that's not all! Education provider Gemm Learning has gone on record to say that reading boosts self esteem and communication skills -- two very important factors for a growing child. Additionally, a study of 17,000 people has found that reading improves children's brains and the benefits are not just seen in literacy but math as well.