The Benefits Of Reading
WORDS: Manatee County School Social Workers and Psychologists
Many of us have memories of the enjoyment of reading
with our parents. Why is it that this practice often stops
after children learn to read? The shared experience
of being read to, and of reading to our parents, provides many
benefits. Here are some important reasons to continue to read
with your children for as long as possible.
The practice of shared reading not only enhances the parent/child
relationship, it fosters the development of listening skills, spelling,
reading comprehension, and vocabulary. It enhances essential
foundational literacy skills and is an opportunity between parents
and their children to encourage positive attitudes toward reading.
When children are read aloud to, their cognitive development
is strengthened as parts of the brain related to narrative
comprehension and mental imagery are stimulated. When the
practice of shared reading continues as children get older, the
likelihood of them becoming life-long readers is improved.
One’s attitude toward reading results from the combined
experiences of reading at home and at school. It is important
to keep the parent/child reading experience positive and not
punitive. This should be a special time shared between parent
and child. The emphasis is on the value of reading and being
together.
Shared reading provides many benefits for children as they
develop early literacy skills. Some tips for how to enhance the
development of these skills are included below.
READING TIPS FOR PARENTS
PHONEMIC AWARENESS is the ability to hear
and manipulate individual sounds in spoken
words. For example, the word “pig” when
spoken has three distinct sounds, /p/ /i/ /g/.
The ability to separate these
three sounds requires phonemic
awareness.
Why is phonemic awareness
important? Children who develop
strong phonemic awareness at
an early age are more likely
to become fluent readers
and better spellers
than children who
do not.
Tips for Parents:
- Do activities with your child to help him/her build sound skills.
(Make sure they are short and fun; avoid allowing your child to
get frustrated).
- Look at a picture book with your child. Choose pictures at
random, pronounce the name of the picture and ask your child
for the beginning sound of the picture. (For example, “dog” has a
beginning sound of /d/. Show your child a picture of a dog. Say
“dog” and ask your child what the beginning sound of “dog” is).
- Help your child think of many words that start with the /m/ or /
ch/ sound, or other beginning sounds.
- Make up silly sentences with words that begin with the same
sound, such as “Pickles and Peachy purred and pounced on
ping pong balls.”
- Play simple rhyming or blending games with your child, such
as taking turns coming up with words that rhyme (go – no) or
blending simple words (/d/, /o/, /g/ = dog.)
- Read books with rhymes. Teach your child rhymes, short
poems, and songs.
- Practice the alphabet by pointing out letters wherever you see
them and by reading alphabet books.
The ALPHABET PRINCIPAL is the understanding that letters
are used to represent the speech sounds of our language.
Why is the Alphabet Principal important? Children must be able
to associate sounds with letters and use these sounds to form
words. Basic code is simple. This is when we use the letters of
the alphabet alone, as one letter = one sound. However, we often
use letters in two’s and groups of three or four to represent the
sounds in our language. This is called Advanced Code and it
is NOT simple.
The more advanced the code, the more difficult it is to crack. The
more difficult it is to crack, the more difficult it is to read fluently.
Understanding the code is the key to developing automaticity
(the ability to read without consciously thinking about it) and
leads to fluent reading.
Tips for Parents:
Basic Code:
- Make a “Words We Read” collage. Help your child understand
that all print requires reading and if they can read labels, they
are in fact, reading. Have your child collect labels they can read
and make a collage.
- Have a “Sound Scavenger Hunt.” Have your child find objects
at home that begin with a sound. Cross off the letter and write
the name of the object next to the letter.
Advanced Code:
- Provide code overlap charts and cards. For example, the letters
“ow” make the sound as in “snow” and the sound as in “cow”,
but the “ow” sound is different in the two words.