Child’s Reading Comprehension Takes a Beating If Mother Smokes During Pregnancy

Advice to avoid smoking during pregnancy is not new to women, but what we are going to read now may just give women one more good reason to completely avoid smoking during pregnancy. Smoking during pregnancy can lower the child’s reading comprehension, researchers said.

During the study, researchers from Yale, as well as Brock University in Canada, analyzed data from more than 5,000 children and drew a comparison to children's reading performance and the child’s exposure to many risks including maternal smoking. "We were very surprised to see that smoking has such a strong association (with reading problems)," Gruen said.

The study found that children exposed to high levels of nicotine while still in the womb scored 2 percent lesser in speed of reading, spelling, accuracy, reading comprehension and other skill areas compared to classmates born to non-smoking mothers.



Source-Medindia