Isn’t it amazing when something that is good for you is also fun and easy to do? Come to think about it, not too many things are that way, are they? We usually associate what is hard, bad tasting, difficult to implement, or boring (ab crunches, kale, early wake-up calls) as good for us, whereas, the easy to do, yummy things are typically bad for us like fast food and candy!
But then there is the read-aloud. It’s fun, it’s easy, it feels good, it’s yummy, and it is oh-so-good for us in many, many ways!
Read-aloud time has so many benefits, not the least of which is a daily time for your family to unplug and connect. Let’s break down the benefits and talk about the drawbacks - just kidding! - there are NO drawbacks!
It creates family bonding time.
Read-aloud time is what Mem Fox, a retired professor of Literacy Studies and author of Reading Magic, calls “chocolate”: it is meant to be sweet, delicious and slightly addicting! My strongest memories of raising my boys are centered around read aloud time. We read together often—bedtime was a staple and we rarely missed it—but we also read aloud before nap times, after returning from the library too excited about the new books to wait for later, or when waiting at the doctor’s office. Climbing into your lap, cuddling under a blanket, hearing your voice as they drift off to sleep are all part of Bonding 101.
Anyone can do it!
Mem Fox calls reading aloud “reading magic” and for good reason. It is the one thing that every parent can do to help their child become a reader. While it may seem like magic, many important processes are taking place when you read to your child. “It is in the context of experiencing good literature together that a child is introduced to all the elements in reading.” (from Chapter 3 of Teach a Child to Read with Children’s Books)
You are modeling what it means to be a reader.
Much of learning to read is caught more than it is taught. Children learn what good reading sounds like as they listen to you read. You are modeling for them fluency, expression, how to engage with the story, how to predict and make inferences, thinking out loud about the story, how to reflect on a story or talk about what that story means to them.
“The most important activity for building the knowledge and skills eventually required for reading is that of reading aloud to children.” - Marilyn Adams, recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Sylvia Scribner Award for Outstanding Research.
It creates a tradition.
One parent recently messaged me and said she was worried she had not been making time to read with her children, but she was going to start because her children loved family traditions. When you read aloud at the same time or place each day, when you show your child that reading aloud is your family’s sacred time and—barring an emergency—nothing supersedes the read-aloud time, you are sending a clear and distinct message to your child: this family values reading, we will always read together.
When your child sees you turn off the TV, silence your phone, and store the iPad in order to make sacred space for books, they will never doubt that reading is part of your family culture and they will grow up to be readers! I promise!
“The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud—it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.” - Mem Fox
Reading aloud elevates books.
In an age where technology and hand-held devices are glorified and elevated (including e-readers), reading books aloud to your child places books back on the high pedestal they deserve. When digital devices were introduced, many worried that books would go the way of the dinosaur. Bookstores like Barnes and Noble started to close their doors and even schools started to embrace digital tools for reading instruction.
There is real reason to be concerned about this and parents raising digital natives should strive to do their part to keep regular books alive and part of their children’s lives.
Concerning the impact of technology driven learning on the brain, consider this quote from Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “My worry is that we’ll have a short-circuited reading brain, excellent for gathering information but not necessarily for forming critical, analytical deep reading skills.”
Parents, you are your child’s first and most important teacher! What you model will outlast all the other educators’ impacts combined. Model well: use read-aloud time to unplug, connect, and instill a love for reading.
Read-aloud resources:
Reading Magic - Mem Fox
The Read-Aloud Handbook - Jim Trelease
The Read-Aloud Family - Sarah Mackenzie
Honey for a Child’s Heart - Gladys Hunt
A Note About the Author
As a literacy coach and reading specialist, Mary Gallagher has almost 30 years of experience in education, focusing mainly on teaching young readers, struggling readers, Title I students, and their parents and teachers. Mary lives in Texas with her husband, Michael, and a growing menagerie of farm animals and is passionate about seeing all children learn to love reading.
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