8 Benefits to Reading With
Children Every Day
- Books for Keeps: Early Years Reading: the power of the picture book
- Novak Djokovic Foundation: Reading to Your Child
- PBS Parents: Helping Your Five-Year-Old Become a Reader
- Philip Bunting Website: Read with, not to
- Power of Pictures: Choosing and using Picture Books
- Read Write Think: Choosing the Right Book: Strategies for Beginning Readers
8 Benefits to Reading With Children Every Day
- Improves Reading Skills: First and foremost, exposure to books improves children’s reading skills. Practice makes perfect!
- Boosts Vocabulary and Literacy Skills: Reading increases vocabulary, comprehension and communication skills. In addition sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and expression will improve.
- Improves Writing Skills: Exposure to new words, grammar and punctuation will improve children’s writing.
- Builds Confidence and Independence: Reading every day builds independence, leading to greater confidence.
- Broadens Minds and Develops Empathy: Diverse literature opens children’s minds to the lives of other people. Subsequently, helping children make sense of the world around them.
- Academic Success: Regular reading promotes academic achievement across the curriculum. Non-fiction books provide opportunities for children to increase their knowledge and interests.
- Develops Imagination: While reading children create new worlds. This develops their creativity and empathy as they immerse themselves in the lives of the characters.
- Reading is Fun! When reading with a child, they can tell if the adult is enjoying themselves. Reinforce the message that reading is an enjoyable alternative to video games and TV by reading yourself.
Child Selected Reading
Working in a school library I saw the pleasure children had when choosing their own books. As a consequence of this freedom they may bring home a book you wouldn’t choose. Ask your child about their book choices. It may surprise you to find out what they are actually interested in. Personal interests should always be the basis for making reading an enjoyable experience. If they bring a non-fiction book home you don’t have to read the entire book, just dip in and out. Give them the freedom to (sometimes) pick their own reading material.
Different types of books and their benefits
- Introduce the concept of reading and build vocabulary
- Illustrations help define unknown words
- Encourage conversation and comprehension
- Strengthen visual and critical thinking skills
- Blends stories with art, working together to tell the story
- Introduce complex concepts in a safe environment
- Ease the transition to chapter books with increasingly complex vocabulary and sentence structure.
- Illustrations add details and hold interest.
- Develop patience as they can’t always be read in one session
- Specifically formatted for emerging independent readers
- Introduce children to a range of genres seen in chapter books
Beginning Chapter Books
- Ease the transition to chapter books with increasingly complex vocabulary and sentence structure. Illustrations that add detail and hold interest
- Develop patience as they can’t always be read in one session
- Specifically formatted for emerging independent readers
- Introduce children to a range of genres seen in chapter books
- Promote literacy and improves self-esteem
- Reach reluctant readers of traditional text
- Provide contextual visual clues to the meaning of the written text
- Provide clues to emotional context children might miss when reading traditional text
- Encourage English-language learners to acquire new vocabulary and subsequently increase English proficiency
- Improves reading pace as they slow down to examine the images, supporting comprehension
- Develop critical reading skills
- Provide different reading levels and interests
- Colourful and inviting pages engage reluctant readers
- Hold attention and ignite imagination
- Arrive periodically and are familiar and not intimidating
- Support communication with friends as they learn around common interests
- Engaging with short and numerous articles
In conclusion...
Books about Reading
Again! by Emily Gravett
"It's nearly Cedric the dragon's bedtime – there's just time for his mum to read him his favourite book. Unfortunately for her, Cedric likes the story so much that he wants to hear it again . . . and again . . . and again . . . ” Two Hoots
Are You Sitting Comfortably? by Leigh Hodgkinson
"Hello there! Are you sitting comfortably? Are you sure? Have you found the perfect snuggle-up-and-lose-yourself-in-a-book place? Somewhere comfy, NOT itchy-fuzzy? Somewhere quiet, NOT buzz-buzzy? You have? Great! Unfortunately, the little chap in this book isn't having quite as much luck as you are ...” Bloomsbury Children's Books
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
"It’s time for the little red chicken’s bedtime story – and a reminder from Papa to try not to interrupt. But the chicken can’t help herself! Whether the tale is Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood or even Chicken Little, she jumps into the story to save its hapless characters from doing some dangerous or silly thing. Now it’s the little red chicken’s turn to tell a story, but will her yawning papa make it to the end without his own kind of interrupting?” Walker Books
The Story of Fish and Snail by Deborah Freedman
"Every day, Snail waits for Fish to come home with a new story. Today, Fish's story (about pirates!) is too grand to simply be told: Fish wants to "show" Snail. But that would mean leaving the familiar world of their book--a scary prospect for Snail, who would rather stay safely at home and pretend to be kittens. Fish scoffs that cats are boring; Snail snaps back. Is this book too small for the two feuding friends? Could this be THE END of The Story of Fish and Snail?” Penguin
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8 Benefits to Reading With Children Every Day, 8 Benefits to Reading With Children Every Day, 8 Benefits to Reading With Children Every Day 8 Benefits to Reading With Children Every Day 8 Benefits to Reading With Children Every Day 8 Benefits to Reading With Children Every Day