Dr. Richard Gentry just posted a great blog post, "Top 10 Reasons to Teach Your Baby or Toddler To Read".
Here are the first two:
1. It readies your child for kindergarten.Fact: Forty-three percent of children in America are not school ready when they enter kindergarten. Yet, children who get early literacy exposure with positive speech interactions have a 32-million-word advantage by age four over children who did not get this exposure. Teaching reading to preschoolers and being ready for kindergarten can be accomplished easily and informally with a little literacy activity each day in short durations.
2. It alleviates worries about reading disability later on.Fact: Neuroscientists tell us that the preschool brain is malleable and more likely to reorganize dysfunctional or dyslexic reading circuitry if we intervene early. Early intervention starts at home. You should be your child's first reading teacher for this reason alone.
Read the full blog post here:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers/201107/top-10-reasons-teach-your-baby-or-toddler-read