Chelsea Clinton recently appeared in a video with everyone's favorite Muppet, Elmo, to chat about being a new mom and the importance of talking, reading, and singing to children from an early age. Our favorite part? She read aloud from our title, Goodnight, I Love You!
"My husband Marc and I read to Charlotte every night, and when her grandparents come over, they read to her as well," Chelsea said to Elmo. "It's so important that little kids, kids Charlotte's age, and kids your age, Elmo, be read to and talked to and sung to. It helps their brains develop."
Chelsea is referencing the goal of the Clinton Foundation's Too Small to Fail initiative, and their new collaborative effort with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Reach Out and Read, and Scholastic to raise awareness among parents about early language development.
In June of this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organization representing more than 62,000 pediatricians nationwide, announced a new policy recommending parents read aloud to their children from birth, citing that reading to children from birth is critical to building foundational language, literacy and cognitive skills.
At Scholastic we know that reading together is a wonderful way for parents to bond with their babies and to help set their children up to be lifetime readers. We make a point to offer free tips, articles, and advice to new parents on our Parents site and social media channels, at #readfrombirth and #parents. Chelsea and her husband are going to be great parents—they're already on the right track when it comes to reading!
Image via MAX ORENSTEIN/CLINTON FOUNDATION for People Magazine
