Parents Should Do This One Thing If You Want Your Kids To Be Smart

I have six siblings so my parents were very happy that I wasn't that smart. It meant that they didn't have to come up with more money for college tuition.

All parents want their children to be smart, and it appears there is at least one way you can help make that happen: Read to them. A lot. Preschool-age children who regularly hear stories read to them have far better language skills than kids who don't hear stories.

Specifically, they show more activity in areas of the brain that are linked to word meanings and imagination, HealthDay News reports of research from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. The study found that the children who had the most story time at home also had more brain activity while they were listening to stories in the research lab.

The difference was especially noticeable in the area of the brain that is involved in semantic processing, that is the ability to extract meaning from words. The brains of the kids who were read to the most, showed "particularly robust" activity where mental images are formed from what is heard, according to the researchers. (HealthDay News)