Mom Reveals What Toddler Reads Before Bed—and It's Not Like 'Most Children'

A mom couldn't quite believe her 1-year-old son's recent choice of bedtime reading material.

Neelam Mirza-Akram, from Hertfordshire, England, felt compelled to record her toddler, Haris, as he began his reading one night—and she had a valid reason to.

There are few things more important to a young child's development than reading or being read to. It's a key way of exposing infants to crucial language patterns.

Speaking to the Child Mind Institute, neuropsychologist Laura Phillips said, "Just exposure to words is the single most important thing that you can do to help build the language pathways in your child's brain." She added, "Reading and exposure to words helps kids maximize their language and cognitive capacity."

The "exposure to words" that Phillips refers to can take many forms. For Haris, it's a more unusual form of exposure than most might expect.

In a video Mirza-Akram posted to social media, Haris can be seen sitting with his cousin reading out a Chinese menu. "My son loves to read in general," Mirza-Akram said. "He had this menu stuck in the fridge with his fridge magnets and took it down and gave it to my cousin to read to him."

Haris can be seen in the video closely studying the words on the page while his cousin reads them out. "He's very inquisitive," Mirza-Akram said. "My son's nursery staff tell me his speech is very advanced."

In the moment, Mirza-Akram felt compelled to pick up her phone and film what he was doing. "We thought it was so funny, so I started to record," she said.

"Most children read The Hungry Caterpillar before bed. My son reads the Chinese menu," she wrote in an on-screen caption accompanying the clip.

The video has proved a hit online, amassing more than 1.7 million views. "I think it's because he's 1 years old and his pronunciation is so good but cute at the same time," Mirza-Akram said.

All jokes aside, she hoped Haris' efforts would encourage kids to try new things and inspire parents and children to take up reading in all its forms. "I hope people will encourage their children to read more and use bigger and more complex words! It helps their vocabulary," she said.

In the meantime, Haris has moved on from the Chinese takeout menu to something a bit more challenging. "He has started reading an Indian menu now," Mirza-Akram said. "Definitely harder."