CINCINNATI — A new study published by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital shows reading to newborns may help wire the child’s brain to learn to read before kindergarten. 

What You Need To Know

  • A new study by Cincinnati Children's Hospital found that reading to newborns could help the child read before kindergarten

  • A new NICU Bookworms reading program was created to encourage parents to read to their newborn in the NICU at Cincinnati Children's Hospital

  • Mackenzie Lober enrolled her son Enoch in the program while he was in the NICU

  • Lober said reading to her now 8-year-old son as a newborn allowed him to get a jump start on reading, too

​​It’s been a long road for Mackenzie Lober and her newborn son, Enoch. After finding out he had two rare genetic disorders, the same as his older brother Ephraim, they decided to travel from their home in Nashville to deliver in Cincinnati.

“We knew that it was not even a question in our minds," Lober said. "We knew that we wanted to birth at Cincinnati so that our son would have access to big brother’s specialists from day one of life. We wanted him in the best hands from the beginning.”

Enoch was born six weeks early, meaning a stay in the NICU. 

“You learn to make the best in hospitals because these kids do grow up in and out of hospitals," Lober said.

And that’s why Lober decided to enroll Enoch in a new NICU Bookworms program.

“She mentioned the reading thing, and I was really intrigued because of course I read to Ephraim from the time he was home from the hospital," Lober said. "And I had actually brought some books with me to Cincinnati to read to the baby while he was in the NICU.”

The program was developed after a new study published by the hospital found that being read too early on can help children learn to read before kindergarten. 

“Just wanting some normalcy in the midst of medical tests and the stress and the uncertainty and the tubes and the wires and the rounds and the doctors and the nurses," she said. "It’s nice to have a little piece of what life would be like at home.”

While her older son wasn’t enrolled in a program like that, Lober said she always read to him as a baby, too, and he was able to read before starting kindergarten.

“Whether that’s coincidence or not, who knows," Lober said. "But I have to believe that exposing him to literacy consistently in his early years at least played a role in that.”

And now, he reads to his baby brother each night.

Lober said she’s grateful for all the extra work Cincinnati Children’s has done to keep both of her sons healthy.

“We attribute so much of our boys' lives to Cincinnati Children’s," she said. "So grateful doesn’t begin to cover it.”