The Associated Press has covered a report published in the journal “Child Development” which found that toddlers are able to recognize written words as symbols at an earlier age than experts had previously thought, which marks an important step on the path to reading readiness. In the words of Temple University psychology professor Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, who specializes in literacy development, recognizing that writing is “something that stands for something else, it actually is a vehicle for language — that’s pretty powerful stuff.”