Reading to your baby pre-bedtime is best.

According to the latest research replicated at Sheffield University, psychology department the best time to read to your baby is, not surprisingly just before they go to sleep. We all have experience of that bed time story read by our parents (if we are lucky) and the beneficial effects. Now there is empirical evidence to support the hypothesis and it makes very satisfactory reading. Another example was to get very young children, about one year old to take the mittens off a doll. Those who did so just prior to sleep were able to do the task, whereas others who didn't benefit from a short nap did less well. Moreover they were unable to remember the skills necessarily to complete the task over 24 hours later. This reminds us, as if that were necessary of the importance of the relationship pre-sleep. Having said this those who don't do these basic things for their babies are already putting them at a major disadvantage, which makes it difficult to catch up. We know that there are many children that enter nursery and pre-school who don't have the basic skills and are already behind their often middle class peers. More must be done to alleviate this basic deficit before it becomes ingrained and they fall further behind.