The Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Child Is To Read To Them

The classic bedtime story we all try to fit into our night time routine may be one of the most important things you can do for your child. Young children who are read to regularly by family members receive a multitude of benefits that boost their literacy development as well as social-emotional gains and are shown to excel academically. Children who are read to regularly end up having a larger vocabulary, higher levels of phonological, letter name, and sound awareness, and better success at decoding words. Wowza! 

Also, did you know that the number of words in a child’s vocabulary can be an important indicator of later academic success? Children’s vocabulary use at age three is a strong predictor of language skill and reading comprehension at age 9-10. Yes, that means what we are providing our children now is going to be with them for rest of their lives. What better gift could we give our kids than that?

It is equally shocking to hear that children who lack a strong foundation of language awareness and literacy skills early in life are more likely to fall behind in school, and are more likely to drop out. This doesn't mean always but there is a stronger chance of this happening. But - We DO Know that shared parent-child book reading during children’s preschool years leads to higher reading achievement in elementary school, as well as greater enthusiasm for reading and learning. Therefore their chances of falling behind and dropping out are slim to none. 

Diving in a little bit deeper to recent trends, it was found that vocabulary use in first grade can predict more than 30 percent of 11th-grade reading comprehension. This is something each of us as parents can fit in, say, 30 minutes a day. There is actually no excuse not to or really anything else more important you could do for your child to help them be successful in this world.  As educators and parents we have a responsibility to take 30 mins or so from our day and give our children what they need most. A chance and opportunity to excel in life and we can start by making reading to our children one of our top priorities. 

https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/05_appendix1.pdf