Why Reading Aloud Is Valuable For Your Child
It happens to all of us: sometimes, when your little one asks for a story before bed, you don’t want to read it. But still, you take a book and go sit there beside her pillow and read aloud her favorite fairy tales, because you know there is something calming and relaxing in reading. What does reading aloud do for us?
The busyness of your everyday routine may deprive you of quality time with your children during the day. Taking a few minutes and reading aloud to them is your chance to talk to your children, spend time with them, and teach them something new. And if you do feel too tired to read, you can sometimes ask your child to read to you. Even young children who can’t read yet can tell a story by looking at the pictures in the book.
Reading out loud with you is extremely important for your child. First of all, because this time is associated with a calm, comfortable time spent with mom or dad. Also, it helps develop the spoken language because she can hear herself. This is useful for remembering correct pronunciation of words, and making sure that what she’s reading makes sense. In addition to correcting the reading mistakes, you can discuss the story with her. By reading aloud and discussing what you read, you help your child to think critically, put a story into logical sequence, and find the main points of the text.
Scientific research proves that reading out loud helps the reader to remember and understand the material better. Why? Because reading aloud forces the reader to slow down and make sure that what they are reading makes sense. Stopping for punctuation and correcting syllable stress and pronunciation as you go helps the reader to understand the meaning of what they are reading. Also, because she’s hearing the material as she read it, your young student is receiving the information two different ways and is more likely to remember it.
If that’s not enough, remember that reading aloud is often more interesting than reading quietly by yourself, especially for young children. It’s fun to read a book together with someone else. You can take turns trying to guess what will happen next and discuss what you already know. By reading books together, you and your child will grow even closer, and you will learn some things you might not have known about the kinds of things your child loves: what stories and topics are interesting to her and really make her excited?
As always, you shouldn’t force your child to read aloud all the time, or make them hear a book you read if they don’t want to. Your child’s personality and interests might be very different from your own, and you need to consider them also. Make sure you have a lot of different kinds of books around the house so that your child can choose what is interesting to them, and make sure they see you reading so that they understand that reading can be fun and not just something that they have to do.
