The Benefits of Reading to Children
If children have been read to every day by a parent (or foster or step or grand parent) starting way before kindergarten and even way before age three they have a much greater chance of being successful in school. When parents talk to and read to their children attentively and lovingly it enhances the children’s language and reading readiness skills. When parents use a variety of words, interact with their children verbally and enjoy pleasurable book-sharing routines, the children gradually develop the emergent literacy skills they will need.
Lap-reading, picture book sharing, bedtime story experiences before age three provide several crucial components for later reading success:
- An association of books with happiness, fun and love.
- An understanding of how books work and what reading means.
- An exposure to many more words (thousands) than the child would be introduced to otherwise, giving the child a much larger listening vocabulary.
- An introduction to a wide ranging variety of things in the world, from the illustrations in picture books.
When children enter kindergarten with these components of emergent literacy, they are ready to learn. They are likely to be on grade-level in third grade and thus to continue to succeed.
“This harmonious time together…creates a clear link in a child’s mind between pleasure and books.” Later, when the child “faces the potentially difficult task of mastering reading mechanics, the knowledge that books are pleasurable will provide motivation.”
Kathleen Odean, Former chair of the Newbery Award Committee
Why The BookStart Fund?
- Today in Fort Wayne several thousand children start school not ready to read, especially those from low socioeconomic levels.
- The most effective way to insure that parents begin a read-aloud routine is to give them good board books, preferably in their home, in repeated visits by a mentor who demonstrates how to use the books. This kind of interaction encourages parents to be regular readers with their youngsters.