A recent study by researchers at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Humanities states that this is not the case .
Parents often use all means of communication available to them (such as DVDs or tablets) with the intention of teaching their children to read; however, these tools do not instill the ability to read, according to a study of 117 babies between 9 and 18 months of age , who were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. The children in the first group received a package with a DVD, cards and books to be used daily for a period of seven months; the babies in the control group did not receive these materials. Over the course of those seven months, the researchers conducted a home visit, four lab visits, and monthly evaluations of the toddlers' language development.
To test the children's skills in the lab, the researchers examined their ability to recognize letter sounds, letter names, and word comprehension, among other things. The results did not show any difference between the children who received this "training" and those who did not. The conclusion is clear according to this study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology : Babies cannot learn to read.
