Can reading to NICU babies help them develop language?

Dr. Sallie Coke (left) in the Nursing Skills Lab at GCSU.

Babies admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are vulnerable. They could be admitted because they’re born preterm, have a very low birth weight, ill at birth, born with congenital abnormalities, or have another condition. We have NICUs to save their lives.  

But NICUs are pretty stressful for infants and their families. Monitors are beeping, staff are talking, and infants are no longer within the quiet and comforting environment they were developing in.   

“It is a traumatic event for families to have a baby born that’s premature—it impacts everything and everybody within the family,” said Dr. Sallie Coke, professor of nursing at Georgia College & State University.  

These factors combine to create an atmosphere of low interaction and language exposure and high sound exposure, which is linked to “poorer growth, cognition, language, and motor outcomes.”  

This is from a scoping review of existing literature published by the Public Library of Science in March 2025. The authors, Dr. Lama K. Farran and Dr. Susan N. Brasher, are both former recipients of Sandra Dunagan Deal Center research grants. Their study compiled eight research articles and determined there are benefits to shared reading in the NICU for infants and their caregivers.  

Farran is an associate professor of communication sciences and disorders at the University of West Georgia, and Brasher is an assistant professor of nursing at Emory University.  

“Talking and reading to infants matters, period,” Farran said. “Babies benefit from this communicative exchange, and it’s an incredibly rich experience for all caregivers.”  

Shared reading is a relatively new concept for NICUs. In one of these programs, caregivers might be guided to talk with their infant, touch them while reading, or sing to them. Programs implementing shared reading in the NICU give caregivers a way to bond with infants while exposing them to language, potentially helping to close gaps in the baby’s development.   

“Hearing their mother’s voice through shared reading has been linked to improved neurodevelopmental outcomes for infants,” Farran said. “These include better cardiorespiratory strength, improved brain growth, and auditory stimulation.”  

The first United States NICU was established in 1965 at Yale Hospital in Connecticut. After 1976, NICUs were able to drastically improve survival of premature infants. So, it’s not strange that we’re still seeing developments in neonatology, or the care of newborns.   

Caption: Dr. Sallie Coke began her nursing career in the NICU.

“Holding the baby close and skin-on-skin contact—we've really found that babies who have that do better,” Coke said. “This is like adding on to that and allowing the caregiver to be involved in care of the infant even though they’re in NICU.” 

What does this mean for NICU nurses and healthcare workers? 

“Model talking and reading to infants,” Farran said. “It benefits everyone involved, even the medical team members who might find reading enjoyable and calming.” 

A NICU nurse might describe what they’re doing while providing care, for example.   

“This is something that matters, this is important, and everyone has to be on board,” Coke said. “We’re here to help the parent, we’re here to help the baby, and if we can bring these two together then it’s worth doing.”