Reading to children of all ages grooms them to read on their own
This is the subject of an article I read this morning in the NY Times. A study undertaken by Scholastic Press shows that fewer than 30% of the 1000 children included in the study read books just for fun, and the percentage is less than it was four years ago. A lot of data have shown that much of who we become in life is determined within the first years of our life. Our vocabulary, our ability to express ourselves in grammatically correct English develops, or can develop, early in childhood. This is seen in families where there is a constant stream of interpersonal communication, as distinct from communication received via a TV or computer. Conversation and reading are critical to enhancing the development of our kid's brains and giving them a leg-up on life. The brains of young kids are fantastic landscapes just waiting to be populated with information. It is disturbing then to find that kids are not reading for fun. There were some consistent patterns among the heavier readers: For the younger children — ages 6 to 11 — being read aloud to regularly and having restricted online time were correlated with frequent reading; for the older children — ages 12 to 17 — one of the largest predictors was whether they had time to read on their own during the school day.There is a tendency to think that once kids are no longer toddlers you no longer need to read to them. What happens, though, is that often the kids do not continue reading. The benefits of reading as a family are tremendous. Instead of each family member retreating to their own world, a set reading time establishes family. It's a spiritual concept. Moreover, reading to older children, into their teens, can broaden the child's exposure to vocabulary while at the same time introducing new concepts, and providing new background information. Discussing what has been read at all ages is a way of enabling the kids to evaluate information and situation, to form and express considered opinions.
You cannot begin reading to your children too soon. But, keep at it when they are no longer toddlers. I copy here a link to the interesting article.http://nyti.ms/14s0S6K
The Deering Public Library will continue with Saturday morning Story Hour later in January. If you are interested, please contact Gary Samuels at samuelspatty@gmail.com
