Read Aloud Success
07/01/2009
Reading aloud to children whets their appetite for books, builds their vocabularies and enhances their sense of security. It’s a recipe for success that you’ll all find delicious.
“Reading with my daughter gives us time to bond and adds depth to our relationship,” says Jeffery Brown of Baltimore, Maryland. “I get to show her that Daddy isn’t just for playing; I can cuddle too. Reading time is a chance for us to reconnect each day.”
Ann and Rick Latham of Easthampton, Mass., read to their two young children daily during the kids’ growing-up years. Ann believes this simple habit helped turn her children into voracious readers and later, win admittance to some of the country’s top colleges. “They have a knowledge base that enriches their lives daily,” Ann says.
Reading Aloud Right
With very young children, read for a few minutes several times a day, suggests Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook (Penguin, 2006). You should be reading for 20–30 minutes at a stretch by the time your child is 5 years old.
When should you stop? Maybe never, says Trelease, who notes that the National Commission on Reading recommends reading aloud together even through the high school years. He adds that it can motivate additional reading and plant seeds that will bear fruit in future generations.
For read-aloud success with your young child, follow these tips from Trelease:
- Occasionally stop just before a predictable key word or phrase and let your child say it.
- Keep kids involved by asking, “What do you think is going to happen next?”
- Read with plenty of expression.
- Give reluctant or unusually active children paper and crayons to keep their hands busy while they listen.
- Whenever possible, add a fresh dimension to the books you read. For example, have a bowl of blueberries ready to enjoy together before or after reading Robert McCloskey’s Blueberries for Sal (Puffin, 1976).
- Set aside time to talk about each book after you’ve finished reading it. Make your discussion open-ended and allow any related thoughts, hopes, fears and discoveries to surface.
“Children can get hooked on reading once they discover all the emotions that can be conveyed through a story,” says Patricia Oholeguy, director of early childhood education at Reading Is Fundamental. “Therefore the best advice for parents is to continue reading to their children and make it fun!”
