I was on a radio program the other day with a woman who contends that she has a technique for teaching infants to read and to do math. She is but one of a large number of entrepreneurs who have started companies to produce books, videos, and training guides for parents who want to give their children an academic Head Start.

When to initiate toilet training has been a controversial subject over the centuries. During the first half of the twentieth century opinion leaned towards early training and putting infants on the potty chair at an early age. Since the sixties a more child centered approach has been the dominant trend.

In a recent article published in the Journal Pediatrics, Frederick Zimmerman (Zimmerman 2009) and his colleagues reported a study in which they interviewed two hundred and seventy five families selected so as to represent a cross section of the US population as a whole. The families had children between the ages of 2 and 4.

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from a minister who took me to task for something I had written many years ago. The statement in question was based upon some of my early research on children’s conceptions of their religious identity. For this study, I interviewed several hundred four to twelve-year-old Catholic, Protestant and Jewish children.

Reading to infants and children is the single most effective means of supporting their language and literacy development. In addition, reading stories and poetry to infants and children fosters healthy bonding and attachment. Reading time should be quiet and unhurried, a respite from our busy schedules and demanding chores. For young infants very simple repetitive stories or poems are best. At this age level, the sounds and rhythms of the words are more important than the content, and your voice is the sound that they like best.