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“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
We hear so much today about the problems that kids are facing in school when it comes to reading. And yet, there’s such a simple solution — one that can help kids throughout their education and turn them into lifelong readers. What’s the answer? Reading aloud. Research shows that reading aloud is the single most important thing parents and caregivers can do to help prepare children for learning From birth to age 3 are critical years in brain development and language skills: Vocabulary, pleasure and familiarity with the printed word, basic phonics, comprehension: Reading stories aloud builds all these crucial skills. The number of words a kid knows when entering kindergarten is a key predictor of his or her future success. More than one in three kids enter kindergarten without the skills Only 48% of all children in America are read to each day. More than 15% or 1.3 million kids are read to by family members fewer than three times a week. Can reading aloud just 15 minutes a day make a difference? Yes, over Research shows that reading physical books with a child fosters bonding, improves a child’s problem-solving skills, and nourishes the power of visualization. Amazing, isn’t it, to think that reading just 15 minutes a day can make such a huge difference in a child’s life? I can still remember my excitement listening to my mom read to us at bedtime and the thrill of going to a library for Read Aloud programs. Simple pleasures and yet they mean so much, especially at a time when even babies are logging major screen time with their parents’ smart phones and iPads. Let’s do what we can to help kids read on as we all write on. * This information comes to us courtesy of ReadAloud.org. |
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