Parents who read aloud to their children are doing the most effective thing to prepare them for school success, according to Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit organization that promotes early literacy and school readiness by placing books in pediatric waiting rooms. Reach Out and Read reports that, in the United States, less than half of children who are 5 years old or younger are read to, placing them at risk for delays in reading and difficulty in school.
Language Development
Language exposure is the foundation for early language skills, reading ability and school readiness. Children develop language skills through hearing words spoken. Reading to children stimulates their vocabulary growth and oral language skills. Books expose children to more words than they would normally encounter, which helps them to understand more spoken words.
Emergent Literacy Skills
Reading to your child helps him understand that the print in the book represents spoken words, and helps him understand that stories have beginnings and endings. He learns how to hold a book and turn the pages, and learns to recognize letters. These skills are emergent literacy skills, those learned before children learn to read and write and which affect a child's success in reading.
School Readiness
Children who are read to and who live in homes with lots of reading materials during the early years are more likely to learn to read at the appropriate age. Reading to your child helps to improve her memory and increase her motivation and curiosity. Children who have poor reading skills are more likely to do poorly in school, which can cause the child to see school as a place of failure and lead to problem behaviors.
Raising a Lifelong Reader
Time spent together over a book helps your child associate reading with positive feelings and helps her become a lifelong reader. Parents should start reading aloud to infants when they are about 6 months old to cultivate a love of reading, according to KidsHealth.org. Reading aloud to your toddler is the best way to prepare her to become an independent reader.
Parent-Child Relationship
Parents who read to their children provide the one-on-one time required for a nurturing parent-child relationship. Parents interact with their children over books, and the attention can improve the child's self-esteem. The Reach Out and Read program recommends reading aloud to your child as an effective method for helping him to handle stress.
