After having written the blog post on how to choose a good read-aloud, I thought afterwards that I should have perhaps started with the why of reading aloud. In our busy days and schedules, it can be easy to dismiss prioritizing time to read aloud to our children. In his book, “The Read-Aloud Handbook”, Jim Trelease gives several important reasons to read-aloud. Surprisingly, I just came across this book recently and wish I had seen it years earlier. It is a treasure trove of research and resources for both teachers and parents.

Taken from his book, here are 10 reasons why you should read to your child:

1. It’s an accrued skill - It’s a time thing. The more you read, the better you get. Therefore the more time you spend reading to your child the better they are going to be prepared for actual reading. You are embedding those building blocks. Just because they can’t read yet doesn’t mean that they can’t still begin learning and understanding the process. Quite often, you will hear the kindergarten teachers talk about those students who have come into kindergarten not ready. A lot of times it is because families have not spent the time reading to their children right from an early age. The interesting thing is that often Kindergarten teachers can accurately predict how a child is going to do as they continue through to graduation. Some of that prediction comes from how they enter kindergarten. 

2. Create life time readers and not just school-time readers. A lot of times I see parents butting their heads against teachers and homework policies. I have had numerous conversations about how school is for school and home is for home. And there is certainly a place for that thinking. Homework for homework sake is not good and is really what the fight over homework is about in my mind. However, this is not a post about homework per se. The point though is that, we want to build children who don’t just read for school. That just creates students who think that reading is just about schoolwork. Reading at home build’s the “want-to” of reading and not the “just-to”.

3.The best source for brain building at the early ages is through the ear. While young children are not yet ready to read with their eyes on their own, reading aloud to them, helps them to hear the words and associate it with what they see. The rich sounds of words help the child make sense of the words they will read later on.

4. To reassure your child - the whole reading with your child reassures them and comforts them. They can snuggle in your arms and feel safe. It is time well spent with your child that will pay huge dividends later on. They know that the time you spend with them is important and thus, they are important.

5. To entertain and bond with your child - The way you speak the text and interact with the book and your child builds reading as something done for fun. Using voices, emphasis, engaging children with the various elements on display brings stories to life as a tv brings live action to life. The important difference is that the stories you read can proceed at your own pace, not a pace dictated by the television. You can stop to explore, talk about what is going on, ask questions. You are an engaged, interactive audience not passively immobile with no control. I still remember my father reading “Danny, the Champion of the World”. It created an indelible memory in me that makes me remember my father every time I read that book. Now that he has passed away, it is nice to have something that I can remember as having been a bond between us.

6. To arouse curiosity and inspire - as with the previous point, as you begin to delve into the story, the pictures and the concepts, you inspire and grow curiosity within your child. And again, they can stop to think about what they are seeing, hearing and reading. They can go back to a previous idea if they need to. A book of poetry with original photographs can inspire your child to look at photographs in new ways or to create their own photograph album. The possibilities are endless with books. You can find and explore books on any concept regardless of the age level.  Just because a child can’t read the book themselves does not mean that it can not still be read to them and explore the illustrations. The interesting thing is that children often have a higher level of listening comprehension than reading comprehension meaning that a child at a grade 4 read level can understand a grade 6 reading level if it is read to them. Often the books, I read in my class are of a higher reading level than what my students can actually read. We’ll talk more about this later.

7. Conditions the child to associate reading with pleasure - When you read with your child, it actually triggers pleasure sensations within our brains. And we always want to return to things that bring us pleasure. My daughter associates reading with getting to snuggle with her father. It is our time together and it brings us both happiness. Developing this joy in reading will help create a reading that is “want-to” reader rather than a “just-to” reader. We will always come back to reading because our brains have associated it with a time of happiness.

8. Creates background knowledge - Allowing your child to find and read books based on their interest, helps them to build knowledge that is relevant to them. I remember being fascinated with Napolean when I was in Grade 3 (Yes, I know I was weird). My mother took me to the public library which had a very limited number of books on the subject and none at my level. So, instead of telling me that there was nothing for me, my mother took the time to go through the material with me and help me to understand and read what I could not. Young children can interact with material as their parents engage them with the text, questioning, pointing out elements of the pictures, etc. 

9. Builds book vocabulary - Just engaging with books with your child helps to build the vocabulary of using books. Table of contexts, page turning, reading from left to right, front cover, etc, are all things that children begin to understand just by sharing books with parents.

10. Provides a reading role model - Seeing your parents, older siblings, heros reading is hugely important. I just had a conversation with a parent about their child’s reading at our recent report card interviews. She was complaining that her child doesn’t like reading much at home for pleasure. I asked her what the reading was like for the parents. She looked a little sheepish and stated that she didn’t particularly read much for pleasure either and realized on her own that there may be a connection. If you prioritize reading and make it important at home, your children will know it is important and may be more likely to pick it up themselves. Getting them their own library card, bringing books, books, and more books into the home, going to bookstores, sharing what you are reading, having conversations about reading and books; these are all things that show how important it is. Having their role models doing this … it just makes even more of a case for getting into it themselves.

The Read-Aloud handbook is a great resource for parents and teachers. You can probably find it at your local library. If not, you can find quite a bit of good information online at http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-intro.html.

What do you think? What reading traditions have you started with your children to develop a love of reading? Let us know in the comments.

Join us by adding your comments! If you haven’t already, let us help you sign up for an account to start using Pockettales in your class. Teachers and classes are always welcome! Sign up at Pockettales.com!