(Host) King Arthur Executive and commentator Steve Voigt says that one
of the best gifts you can give a child this holiday season – or any time
of year for that matter – is to read aloud together.
(Voigt)
One of my earliest memories is of my mother reading to me at bedtime.
The book was The Burgess Book of Animals by Thornton W. Burgess and I
was around 6 years old. The narrator was a mother-nature character who
described – chapter by chapter – every mammal in north America.
I
didn’t know it at the time, of course, but that shared experience with
my mother provided me with an early love of nature and the outdoors –
and an essential tool for achieving success in life.
A new study
released this year by Johns Hopkins University and the Annie E. Casey
Foundation confirms what most of us already know intuitively. A student
who can’t read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to
graduate by age 19. Children in poverty are 13 times less likely to
graduate on time than proficient, wealthier peers. Numerous studies show
clearly that the warning signs for failure to graduate appear early in a
child’s education.
Other research shows that focusing on the
language development of young children from birth to three is critical
to that child’s literacy development rate. One researcher, Masaru Ibuka
claims that, "Kindergarten is too late." For this reason, parents and
caregivers should read to children starting at birth.
Talking to
babies before birth and through the earliest years stimulates brain
development. Reading to babies from birth on helps a child identify
reading with happy, warm feelings. By 6 months babies are imitating
speech, and can enjoy books with simple pictures.
One-year-olds
understand several simple phrases, and can enjoy lift-the-flap books.
Carrying on a conversation with a baby while riding in the car or
pushing a stroller further enriches a child’s development.
By 2
years a child knows roughly three hundred words. The young child can
hold a book, look at pictures, and imitate the reading of an adult. This
is a great age for nursery rhymes and trips to the library. Poems and
songs make language fun and entertaining for children. Drawing pictures
with a young child is also helpful, since the early scribbles of a
toddler become the forms for letters later on.
At 3 years old a
child knows nearly a thousand words and can repeat common rhymes.
Pointing to pictures and words as you read, asking questions about the
stories, and playing rhyming games are all helpful at this stage.
By
5 years of age, children may have as many as five thousand words in
their vocabularies. Now, it’s very important to limit screen time to
encourage reading and sharing books.
By the ripe old age of
seven, most children are beginning to read words automatically. And it’s
important to continue reading and sharing books together, including
chapter books.
Reading to a child in our life or in our
community, doesn’t require giving much more than time, and when we model
our own interest in literacy, it’s a gift they can imitate and treasure
throughout their lives.