By Dr. Stephanie Montgomery
I’ve been working in early childhood education for over three decades—as a classroom teacher, literacy coordinator, and reading specialist for children with learning disabilities. I am no stranger to the compounding effects both academically and social-emotionally that occur when we “wait and see.” I’ll be honest—the new research coming out of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education absolutely thrills me because it validates what many of us in the field have long suspected. It also energizes me because it gives us a clear path forward for how we can better support our children.
The Game-Changing Discovery
Dr. Nadine Gaab and her team have just published findings that should fundamentally shift how we think about reading development. Their longitudinal study, tracking children’s brain development from infancy through childhood, reveals something startling: the trajectories between children with and without reading disabilities begin diverging at 18 months—not at age 5 or 6 as we previously thought.
Let that sink in for a moment. Eighteen months. That’s before most children are even speaking in full sentences, yet their brains are already on different paths when it comes to reading readiness.
As Dr. Gaab puts it so powerfully: “Some of these kids walk into their first day of kindergarten with their little backpacks and a less-optimal brain for learning to read, and these differences in brain development start showing up in toddlerhood.”
We’re Waiting Too Long
Here’s what keeps me up at night: we’re currently waiting until second or third grade to identify struggling readers. By then, we’re not preventing—we’re remediating. And while remediation can certainly help, we know that younger brains are far more plastic and responsive to intervention.
I love the messaging from MaryAnn Bickerstaff, Director of Escambia County’s Help Me Grow program: we are no longer okay with “wait and see.” Our approach at Help Me Grow is “check and see.” We must take a proactive approach in providing our children the services they need in a timely manner.
This shift in mindset—from “wait and see” to “check and see”—is exactly what this Harvard research demands of all of us. We can’t afford to wait for problems to become obvious. We need to be actively looking, assessing, and intervening early.
The research is clear that reading skills don’t magically appear when children start formal schooling. They begin developing in utero through the sound and language processing that occurs before birth, continue through those crucial early months and toddler years, and are heavily influenced by the oral language environment children experience daily.
What This Means for Parents
If you’re a parent reading this, please don’t panic. This isn’t about drilling flashcards with your toddler or rushing to buy phonics workbooks. Instead, it’s about understanding that the foundation for reading is oral language—and that foundation is built through everyday interactions.
Here’s what you can start doing today:
- Talk, talk, talk. Narrate your day with your baby or toddler. Describe what you’re doing as you cook dinner, change diapers, or fold laundry. Every word they hear is building their neural pathways for language processing.
- Read together daily. Even if your child can’t sit still for a full book, those moments of shared reading are golden. Point to pictures, make sound effects, let them turn pages. You’re not just reading—you’re building their phonological awareness.
- Sing songs and recite nursery rhymes. These aren’t just cute childhood traditions—they’re powerful tools for developing rhythm, rhyme, and sound awareness that directly support later reading skills.
- Listen to their attempts at communication. Whether it’s babbling, single words, or two-word phrases, respond as if they’re having a real conversation with you. This back-and-forth exchange builds the foundation for all language learning.
What This Means for Early Learning Programs
For those of us working in early childhood education, this research demands that we examine our practices with fresh eyes. Are we truly prioritizing language-rich environments for our youngest learners? Are our infant and toddler programs designed around meaningful language interactions?
We need to advocate for:
- Infant/child ratios that allow for more individualized language interactions
- Professional development focused on early language development strategies
- Curriculum that prioritizes oral language development over academic skills
- Assessment tools that help us identify children who might benefit from additional language support
We need to implement:
- Responsive caregiving practices that follow children’s communication cues
- Rich, varied vocabulary in our daily interactions with children
- Environments that encourage exploration and conversation
- Strong partnerships with families to support language development at home
We Know Better, So We Must Do Better
Here’s my hopeful challenge to all of us: we can no longer claim ignorance. We know that reading development begins in infancy. We know that early intervention is more effective than later remediation. We know that the language environment we create in those first 18 months matters tremendously.
So what are we going to do about it?
I believe we’re ready to move beyond waiting until children are struggling readers to act. We’re ready to embrace language as a precursor to reading, recognizing that it begins in infancy, not kindergarten. We have the science, and now we have the opportunity to create meaningful change.
Our children deserve better. They deserve early learning environments that recognize the critical importance of those early months and years. They deserve parents and caregivers who understand that every interaction is an opportunity to build the foundation for literacy. They deserve policymakers who fund the research and programs that support early language development.
Read more: The Reading Brain Starts at 18 Months: We Know the Science, Now Let’s ActThe science is clear. The path forward is exciting. Now it’s time to act.