> [...] the number of books in a child's home is a much greater predictor of later literacy ability than the amount parents actually read to their kids. Haha,

> [...] the number of books in a child's home is a much greater predictor of later literacy ability than the amount parents actually read to their kids. Haha, YES! My decision to reverse the process of reducing the size of my giant library of dead-tree books after my first kid was born is JUSTIFIED BY SCIENCE! :-) > That Hart & Risley book I linked to above has some data about how the cognitive benefits of asking questions depends on their grammatical structure. I will definitely check that out, thanks. [EDIT] Incidentally, the number-of-books-matter thing fits well with my hunch that modeling behavior is extremely important to encourage similar behavior in children, assuming the adults in those households tend to read more than the average. It strikes me as crazy to expect kids to, say, enthusiastically take violin lessons, read, and play sports when their parents never play music, never read (except to their kids, perhaps), and rarely exercise at all let alone actually play an organized sport.