Reading with children before they start school puts them eight months ahead of their peers in language skills, new research shows.

Newcastle University carried out a review of 16 studies over the past 40 years to find out the overall benefit to pupils from an early relationship with books.

In a report commissioned for the Nuffield Foundation, the researchers found children whose parents or carers regularly read with them were better at expressing themselves and understanding language.

James Law, Professor of Speech and Language Sciences at Newcastle, said: “While we already knew reading with young children is beneficial to their development and later academic performance, the eight month advantage this review identified was striking.

“Eight months is a big difference in language skills when you are looking at children aged under five.

“The fact we saw an effect with receptive language skills is very important. This ability to understand information is predictive of later social and educational difficulties. And research suggests it is these language skills which are hardest to change.”