A Simple Trick to Help Your Child's Reading
Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most important. When it comes to helping your child become a confident reader, what's the ultimate secret weapon? It's something we do every day: talking. Yes, that's right! Engaging in rich conversations with your child lays the foundation for their reading journey. In this guide, we'll explore how you can leverage the power of language to support your child's reading skills.
Kids need rich oral language experience in order to read. A large body of research indicates that kids with strong language skills have an easier time learning to read. Conversely, kids with weak language skills have a much more difficult time. Language is the foundation on which literacy is built. For example, think about the process of "sounding out" a new word. If you say each sound but that string of sounds doesn't match a meaningful word in your oral vocabulary, then you will not be able to blend those sounds together to read it "fast like a word." This is true of even phonetically simple words such as "mob" or "romp," but definitely plays a large role in the difficulty kids experience reading multi-syllable words.
Here are some ways you can help your child develop language skills, regardless of his or her age:
1. Limit Screen Time, Maximize Talk Time
Increased screen time correlates with underdeveloped neural pathways between the sounds in language and the meaning of words. This is detrimental to the process of learning to read. All language exposures are not created equal; watching TV shows and playing with apps are not as effective at building children's oral language abilities as good old-fashioned conversation, imaginative play, and listening to books.
2. Eye Contact: The Power of Connection
Look your kids in the eye when you talk to them, especially babies and young children. It can be challenging for parents to take their eyes off our computers and phones, but eye contact helps engage our children, even when they are very young.
3. Embrace Rich Vocabulary
Use sophisticated vocabulary with your children. Don't water down your words! Reading picture books aloud is a great way to expose your child to rich vocabulary, as they tend to have many more rare words than our typical conversations.
4. Encourage Dialogue
Try to mix in open-ended questions and engage in back-and-forth conversations with your children. As parents, a lot of the language we direct to our children is, by necessity, direct and succinct (for example, "Sit down." or "Put on your coat and hat."). Try using these language games as you go about your days with your children:
5 Senses: As you walk in your neighborhood or the grocery store, discuss your 5 senses. What do you hear? What colors do you see? What can you smell?
5Ws: Pick an everyday object and come up with 5 questions using the main question words: who, what, where, when, and why. For example, who invented the fork? Where were our forks made? When do you need a fork instead of a spoon? Some questions and answers might be silly, and some might be deep, but they will get conversation flowing around your kitchen table!
Our goal as parents and educators should be to bathe our children in language. For little ones, this might look like reading board books, signing songs, and parroting their babbling. This mission continues all the way through the teenage years, when we are modeling turn-taking in conversation, adding museums and exhibits to our vacation agendas, and listening to non-fiction books in the car. Early literacy and advanced literacy are both built on waves of language!
In conclusion, never underestimate the power of conversation in nurturing your child's reading abilities. By fostering a language-rich environment at home, you equip them with the tools they need to thrive as readers and learners.
