Conan Gasque (Host): We're talking about reading to your kids with Dr. Amy McCollum, a pediatrician here at Midtown Pediatrics at Children's of Alabama. Dr. McCollum, thanks so much for your time today.

Amy McCollum, MD: Glad to be here. It's my favorite topic.

Host: Yes, a very good topic. It's so much fun to read to your kids, but also very good for them. And you can really start pretty much at any age, right?

Amy McCollum, MD: That's right. Um, we encourage our families here at Midtown, all pediatricians do, to start reading to your children from birth, honestly. Um, even if you think that they have no idea what's going on, they're, uh, they're very responsive to your voice, to the tight, you know, connection being held by you and just hearing what you have to say, looking at the bright colors and the bright shapes. So, it's wonderful even from birth.

Host: There's all kinds of benefits that a child can get, uh, from their parent reading to them, no matter what age they are. Can you talk about some of the benefits, how it helps a child develop and grow?

Amy McCollum, MD: For sure. Um, I would say from birth to age three, um, and you're going to have different books throughout that time frame, different types of books. But, um, it really helps with, um, just building their vocabulary. Um, lots of studies have shown that the, that babies respond the best to parents voice, to the voices that they've been hearing from the womb with regards to what they're stimulated by and they connect with. So, you holding them, reading to them, engaging with them with the material is going to build their vocabulary best.

Um, it also builds that bond, that, um, parent child bond because, um, that's just a really good, uh, type of time to be spending with your kid. Um, it will build connection and you can have shared experiences that are a whole lot more meaningful than screen time together. Um, and it also builds their intelligence and helps them be ready for school when they hit those preschool age.

They'll have much more vocabulary to draw on. They'll be ready to start learning their letters and numbers with their peers and much more just school readiness.

Host: Yeah. And you talked about how there's different needs for different ages. Yes. We've got a variety of different books here. Can you talk about how some books appeal to certain ages and serve different purposes for different ages?

Amy McCollum, MD: For sure. Um, we have a program here in our office and a lot of practices in Alabama have a program called Reach Out and Read for Alabama. And um, it's a, it's a non profit agency, but we're giving books from all of our checkups from six months up through five. So we're able to give parents books, and they can walk out of the office with them.

And we try to take that opportunity when we're giving them the book to really talk about the importance of reading with your child. Um, but yeah, from a very early age, we've got very little beginner books. They can, you know, the babies can hold them in their hands. They just have bright colors and happy images, a couple of words.

They may even stick it in their mouth. That is totally okay. We just want them to get excited about a book and hold it. And then we have early toddler books. We also have books in English and Spanish, but at this, you know, we're just trying to work on vocabulary when babies are, say, nine months to one and a half to two.

We're trying to show them what colors and just big objects are. And again, for our Spanish families, we have both things there. Um, in, in the toddler years, it can really be helpful to help them understand difficult things and transitions. We have some books. This one is about, um, why, why moms breastfeed babies.

And that might be confusing for some toddlers. Why, if they have a new baby in the home, why are they breastfeeding the baby, but this talks about how breast milk can help a baby grow and be really healthy and help their brain grow, so that's really good. Um, some of our books really build, um, coping skills.

If your child's terrified of baths, we have books about bath time, so you can read about it and explore why is the bath important, what do we do, and how can we have fun in the bath? That can really help bond over that, how bath time might not be scary for the child.

Host: Maybe they see a character in the book going through bath time and it helps them feel like that's easier now.

Amy McCollum, MD: Absolutely. Yes. Some books build self esteem. This book's called What I Like About Me. So, from a very early age, we need to be telling children how important they are, all the amazing things about them, what they're good at, why their hands are strong, why their feet are strong, all the great things they can do.

So, books will really encourage kids on what they're so good at already. So, those are awesome, um, things kids are interested in. This is a big deal, but you want kids to choose books that they like. So, you've got kids that are obsessed with trucks. You've got kids that are obsessed with bugs. You've got kids that have an aptitude for math.

So, all these things are things that, you know, that kids can choose that express their interests. And if y'all can learn about these subjects together, then they're really going to be more excited about them.

Host: So, it really helps them develop a love for reading, develop a love for various topics, and those are things that can benefit the child really their whole lives.

Guest: Yeah, and as kids get older you can dig into deep, deeper stories that you might remember from your childhood, stories that teach them life lessons like Jack and the Beanstalk about resilience or Dr. Seuss, just, you know, humor and funny things. So lots of things that you can build on as kids get older that they're able to connect with.

Host: And eventually, of course, the child is going to reach an age where they can read on their own. Right. What should a parent do to encourage their child to read or to help them with reading?

Amy McCollum, MD: Yeah, uh, I think one of the main things parents could do is to be a good example for your kids. Try to always talk to families about putting your phone down. Put your phone down and engage with your child. If they see you interested in books and reading, that they're going to be a lot more interested, too. Um, second thing you can do is, um, make it a priority. Stick books in your bag when you're out and about town. So if you have some downtime, you're pulling books out to occupy, um, you know, occupy the kids. You can take trips to the public library.

That's super important. Um, every little community has a public library. They've got wonderful summer reading programs. They have incredible, you know, children's sections that have all kinds of books. So it's a great outing. It's It's free, again, letting the children choose topics that they're interested in, taking the books home, keeping up with the books, returning them, gives them great responsibility skills, and um, that'll keep them really interested, um, yeah.

Host: And when you think about how important reading is, I guess it's something that it's very important for a parent to prioritize reading to their kids and explain to their kids about reading.

Amy McCollum, MD: I think that's the other thing. I mentioned the other, uh, things but reading every night at bedtime is really important. Just building that into your routine will help kids depend on it. That's just a wonderful time to check in and bond with your child. But I think if they can have that in their nighttime routine, then that's another sort of way to kind of encourage reading.

Host: All right. Very good information. Thanks so much for your time.

Amy McCollum, MD: Thanks.

Host: Once again, Dr. Amy McCollum here at Midtown Pediatrics at Children's of Alabama. For more information, go to Children'sal.org.