| | | | The Value of Reading Aloud to our Children |
By Seth Mullins 
Most children learn three-quarters of the words that they will use in their lives (at least in their primary language) by the time they are four or five years old. How do they manage to amass this huge vocabulary at such a young age? Mostly through imitation and repetition. Very young children don’t learn from explanations – their intellects are not yet developed – but rather by making intuitive connections between the sounds they hear and the world around them. The primary way in which they make this connection is by tuning in to the voices of their parents or caregivers.
When we read aloud to them, then, we are giving them a concentrated dose of the mental stimulus that they receive whenever they’re in our presence. Many parents balk at the idea of reading to infants or really small children because they figure the young ones won’t understand the majority of the words anyway. But these children learn to speak, in the first place, by repeatedly listening to words that are initially beyond their comprehension.
Very small children – infants, even – utilize so many subtle impressions to build their picture of the world. After only a few months, an infant can discern a parent’s mood by the tone of his or her voice. They can, to a similar extent, follow the mood of a story before they can intellectualize the meanings behind the words they’re hearing.
All the while, though, they will be developing their future facility with words through a process of association and repetition. When the time comes for them to formally learn how to read themselves, they will have memory impressions of all those hours spent hearing stories – i.e., hearing words and the feelings associated with them.
The Commission on Reading, funded under the U.S. Department of Education, gathered what they believed to be conclusive evidence to support the idea that the single best way to help children build the knowledge needed for eventual success in reading was to read aloud to them. Indeed, it is believed that this activity is more effective than all the other time-honored approaches, such as homework, book reports, recitations and flash cards.
The growing complexity of our modern world has made the ability to read more essential than ever before. As with most other skills, reading is more easily mastered by those who enjoy it. We can cultivate this passion in our young ones early by reading aloud to them. This simple activity, if pursued even for a few minutes a day, will condition them to associate reading with pleasure.
Building upon this pleasurable response, they will be more likely to read on their own when they get older – to entertain themselves, satisfy their curiosity, and ultimately to find inspiration and knowledge.
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this really helped me write my paper for my VHS course thanks
Dominiquedbrown
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