#6: Children Better Prepared For School If Their Parents Read Aloud To Them

NOTE:
Today I am going to pause in posting my personal Subbing/Grubbing notes in order to address an issue of enormous importance: the value of reading to children.

FIRST, I am including a May 12, 2008 report from *Science Daily.* Here is the link to the online article (the page includes related links to other articles involving children reading, the value of talking to themselves, etc):
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080512191126.htm

And here is the brief article:

Children Better Prepared For School If Their Parents
Read Aloud To Them

ScienceDaily (May 12, 2008) — Young children whose parents read aloud to them have better language and literacy skills when they go to school, according to a review published online ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Children who have been read aloud to are also more likely to develop a love of reading, which can be even more important than the head start in language and literacy. And the advantages they gain persist, with children who start out as poor readers in their first year of school likely to remain so.

In addition, describing pictures in the book, explaining the meaning of the story, and encouraging the child to talk about what has been read to them and to ask questions can improve their understanding of the world and their social skills.

The review brings together a wide range of published research on the benefits of reading aloud to children. It also includes evidence that middle class parents are more likely to read to their children than poorer families.

The authors explain that the style of reading has more impact on children's early language and literacy development than the frequency of reading aloud. Middle class parents tend to use a more interactive style, making connections to the child's own experience or real world, explaining new words and the motivations of the characters, while working class parents tend to focus more on labelling and describing pictures. These differences in reading styles can impact on children's development of language and literacy-related skills.

The Reach Out and Read programme in Boston has improved the language skills of children in low income families by increasing the proportion of parents reading to their children.

The programme provides books and advice to the parents about the importance of reading aloud. Parents who have been given books were four times more likely to say they had looked at books with their children or that looking at books was one of their child's favourite activities, and twice as likely to read aloud to their children at least three times a week.

Adapted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.



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SECOND, following that thought-provoking report from ScienceDaily, I am posting (with her permission) Hope Clark's gentle, sensible essay on reading to children from February 3, 2008, "Passing It Forward":

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Volume 8, Issue 5
February 3, 2008
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Editor: C. Hope Clark
Mailto: Hope@FundsforWriters.com
Web Site: www.fundsforwriters.com
FFW Small Markets is an opt-in letter here at your leisure.
FEEL FREE TO FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER TO YOUR FRIENDS !!!!!
http://www.hopeclark.blogspot.com
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EDITOR'S PIECE OF MIND
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PASSING IT FORWARD

We are what we read. Our children become what they read. The
world is so enrapt in online bulleted and graphic material
today, however, that reading text is becoming old-fashioned.
A world of instant gratification, as created by electronics,
makes it hard for young people to sit down over the course
of a few days and (gasp) sit still to read an entire book.
As adults, we are remiss and a major part of the problem.
For instance, have you read the books your child is reading?
Ever considered reading them and having discussions about
plot, character and societal impact of the story? Ever thought
about him reading aloud to you - you reading aloud to him?

When a child sees how excitedly an adult reads, he wants to
emulate. When adults recite passages, story twists and settings
of intriguing books, the child respects reading. Because the
adult loves the written word, the child wants to love it.

Read this piece from a UK online publication titled The
Telegraph, about children, books and the love of reading.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/01/19/bokidsbooks119.xml

Teaching our children to love stories begins with surrounding
them with good stories. This article lists 100 books for each
of three age groups, and labels them as must-reads.

Do you remember being read to? If you do, bless your heart.
I bet you have warm memories of the stories, the voice, the
individual attention of someone telling you a story. You
probably remember those stories into your adulthood. The
Velveteen Rabbit, Where the Wild Things Are, Yertle the
Turtle and Winnie-the-Pooh. You know the tales.

But childhood reading shouldn't end with bedtime stories for
toddlers. Sharing stories should continue into the older years.
Even if you do not read to your teen, at least know what he
is reading and be able to discuss it with him. Quote passages,
even if it's gore from Stephen King's Pet Cemetery.

Not only does reading create memories, but it exercises the
mind. It empowers a child to write. It provides fodder for
his everyday life, his conversations into adulthood, his
credibility as an intelligent human being, his job and his
personal life.

I read to my husband when we drive, sit on the back porch,
or have a drink on the sofa late in the afternoon. Sometimes
it's the news, and at other times it's my fiction. When
we dated, I read poetry over the phone. It's amazing how
reading the Book of Solomon from the Old Testament can spark
a relationship with a beau.

Get back to reading. Show a child how glorious the worlds
are between cardboard covers.

Hope Clark

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With these two articles as background, I will soon follow (in a post that will appear above this one) with my Journal Notes for the 19 November 2007 subbing assignment, for that is where I came to understand firsthand how desperately impaired many of our children are when it comes to reading.