Reading aloud to all children from infancy to college has many benefits. Many parents and teachers believe that when children are toddlers and of primary school age it is best to read stories aloud because of the child’s inability to read.
As children get older, we don’t think that reading aloud is as important – they can read independently. But, according to Jim Trelease a child’s reading level doesn’t catch up to his/her listening level until eighth grade. Children listen and comprehend at a higher level than their reading level. Children have listened to oral language since they were born. Some doctors claim that a baby in utero can recognize sounds, especially the mother’s voice. Babies, while in the womb, listen and learn.
Reading out loud is important from infancy through high school and beyond. Reading is the meat of education; it is the building blocks of life. The more a child reads or listens to an adult read, the more they know and learn and the fact is – knowledge builds success. Oral reading to students provides valuable background information that helps them make sense of what they see, hear, and read. The more adults read to children, the larger their vocabularies grow.
Adults are role models for children in introducing the language of books, which is different from movies and television. When being read to, the listener’s imagination flourishes. Oral reading to a person provides the mind with a picture of what is happening. It enables the exploration of different people, places, times, and events.
Reading aloud to children of all ages provides many benefits:
It allows for quality time together.
A reason to talk to one another is created through books.
Feelings are voiced about various events.
Different perspectives on topics are brought to light.
New vocabulary and information not normal to every day life is opened.
A love for reading begins to build.
Middle and high school students benefit from an adult orally reading different genres such as Shakespeare or Dickens. This exposes students to a variety of literary style. Discussions are open for an explanation of rhetorical and literary devices. Middle school students show high interest in reading with engagement in the text when they hear a passage or chapter orally read. They are prone to be more motivated to further read. Reading a variety of genres to children builds life long readers for pleasure and enjoyment.
Reading aloud to kids from infancy to college is a positive way of advertising books and engaging in the pleasure of reading. Simply exposing reading in schools do not develop a life-long reader, it only sends a message that reading is for the classroom. In that reading aloud improves literacy skills, we need to be reminded that the benefits of reading aloud to primary children are extended beyond the early years. Let’s make the most of reading aloud for results that will be extraordinary for individuals and to enhance the understanding of the future as well as the past.
