As I was reading this I began to wonder if there were confounding factors here. The original study did mention controlling for age, gender, and income... thoug

As I was reading this I began to wonder if there were confounding factors here. The original study did mention controlling for age, gender, and income... though I can't help but think that there can easily be other confounding factors. Maybe parents who read to their kids altogether spent more time with them and it's that kind of attachment that really had the benefits. Maybe it's the simple act of holding your child that's giving them the benefits. Also, whenever a study like this comes out I can't help but think of the mechanism that could be causing this. Why would reading to a child have substantial more benefits than screen time? What if the screen time were a reading simulation app? What if you read a book to your child that happened to be on an iPad? What if you held the child and showed them a reading simulation app without actually reading to them yourself? Some part of me doesn't think it's as simple as "screen bad, book good"