Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World

by Maryanne Wolf

Money literally talks in the early language and cognitive development of our children, as demonstrated in the extensive analyses by the University of Chicago economist James Heckman10 and his colleagues. Simply put, the amount of money we invest in the first years of a child’s life produces greater returns for each dollar spent than at any other time in the life span. The implications of all the various types of research on the developing child could not be better understood: society needs to invest in more comprehensive early-childhood programs11 with more highly trained professionals before the first large gaps in language and learning become permanently cemented in the lives of millions of children.