Head of Junior Years

The most important thing?

What is the most important thing?  I guess it depends on who you are talking to and what you are talking about.

As an educator, when I saw an article entitled “Want to raise smart, kind kids? Science says do this every day”, I was very interested and in my mind was thinking about what it would say. I was not surprised when the author said that reading to your child for 10 – 15 minutes a day was a “key stone habit” for raising smart, kind and healthy kids – and it’s absolutely free!

The article went on to explain what happens when this reading takes place with links to the supporting research. You can read the article here, but below are the important parts: 

This is what happens when you read aloud to your child every day:

• Your child will hear a wider variety of words. Here’s why this is important: “The one pre-kindergarten skill that matters above all others, because it is the prime predictor of school success or failure, is the child’s vocabulary upon entering school. Yes, the child goes to school to learn new words, but the words he already knows determines how much of what the teacher says will be understood. And since most instruction for the first four years of school is oral, the child who has the largest vocabulary will understand the most, while the child with the smallest vocabulary will grasp the least.” – The Read-Aloud Handbook
• You grow your child’s brain, literally. The more you read to your child, the more the neurons in her brain will grow and connect together
• You put her on the path to be a lifelong reader. Reading is essential for the learning process, and kids who struggle with reading tend to struggle in school. But you have the power to give your child this one key to success in school and life because: “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”– Becoming a Nation of Readers
• Your child’s behaviour will improve. When you read aloud, you increase your child’s ability to pay attention and concentrate – skills that definitely help your child in school. Also, reading aloud to a child can even decrease aggressive tendencies in the child.
• You build a stronger bond with your child. Kids love when you read aloud to them because of the physical closeness and emotional bonding it offers: “We’re blown away that kids time and again said the most special time they recall spending with a parent is reading together.” This makes sense when you think about it. In our busy modern lives, how often do we stop everything we’re doing, put down our phones, and just enjoy time with our kids? A strong connection with your child leads to better cooperation from them, and that’s something pretty much every parent could use more of.
• You increase your child’s capacity for empathy. When you read fiction to your child, their brain is “literally living vicariously through the characters at a neurobiological level.” In other words, you’re exposing your child to different types of people and giving them the ability to put themselves in their shoes while you read. Growing your child’s empathy muscle will teach them to be a friend who empathizes, a partner who can see their partner’s side in a disagreement, and a compassionate person who helps others in need.

As an educator, I totally agree with what the author has written and have seen the effect of the power of reading to children on their learning. It will certainly help children as they learn to read but learning to read is a skill which needs to be taught rather than caught.  It is not something which happens naturally, like walking or talking.

The Simple View of Reading explains that learning to read requires two key elements – correctly identifying words (decoding) and understanding their meaning (comprehension). Both of these need to happen at the same time for ‘reading’ to be occurring. Children will see and hear great models of this as they are read to, but the teaching and learning in a classroom includes a lot more.

Reading research shows that there are five essential skills for reading. These five components need to be explicitly taught in addition to providing a strong foundation in oral language.

1. Phonemic Awareness: The ability to identify and manipulate the distinct individual sounds in spoken words.

2. Phonics: The ability to decode words using knowledge of letter-sound relationships.

3. Fluency: Reading with speed and accuracy. ‘Oral reading fluency’ refers to reading text passages aloud.

4. Vocabulary: Knowing the meaning of a wide variety of words and the structure of written language.

5. Comprehension: Understanding the meaning and intent of the text.

Scarborough’s Reading Rope is a great visual which describes how this all comes together:

As you can see, becoming a skilled reader is a complex and involved process. Our teachers are experts at bringing all these parts together in the classroom. Each time parents read to their children (no matter what their age) and assist them in their personal reading practice, they help to consolidate these skills and strengthen the neurons required to build reading brains. The wonderful bonus is that developing a love of reading as a child, is a gift which keeps on giving through to adulthood in so many ways. I’d say that’s definitely an important thing!