Reading is Still the Key to School Success
Forget the flashcards. Nix the tutors, too. The single best thing you can do to boost your children’s future academic performance is this: READ to them. Every single day. Reading to children not only enhances vocabulary and other important communication skills but also helps them develop background knowledge on a plethora of topics.
Many parents seem to understand that reading is crucial to the development of pre-literacy skills in very young children. According to a report about the reading habits of young readers released by Scholastic in 2015, more than half of children ages 0–5 (54%) are read aloud to at home 5–7 days a week. This statistic declines, however, to only one in three for children ages 6–8 (34%) and to one in six for kids ages 9–11 (17%).
Reading is so crucial to the development of pre-literacy skills that parents are urged to read to their children from birth—and continue reading right through elementary school (Russ et al, 2007). That’s right, continue reading to your kids even if they can read books on their own. According to the Scholastic study, four in 10 children, ages 6–11, who were read books aloud at home (40%) say they wished their parents had continued reading aloud to them.
The idea of reading aloud to children after the age of five or so may come as a surprise to some parents. But for kids, the read-aloud experience is a special bonding time with their moms and dads. And, according to the Scholastic study, reading aloud to children through elementary school seems to be connected to a love of reading in general for those kids: 41% of frequent readers, ages 6-10, were read aloud to at home whereas only 13% of infrequent readers were being read to. No matter what the age of your son or daughter, though, “the read-aloud can really lift the child” (Rich, 2015).
Kids and Family Reading Report. (2015). YouGov/Scholastic. http://www.scholastic.com/readingreport/Scholastic-KidsAndFamilyReadingReport-5thEdition.pdf.
Rich, Motoko. (2015, January 8). Study finds reading to children of all ages grooms them to read more on their own. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/us/study-finds-reading-to-children-of-all-ages-grooms-them-to-read-more-on-their-own.
Russ S., Perez V., Garro N., Klass P., Kuo A.A., Gershun M., Halfon N., and Zuckerman, B. (2007). Reading across the nation: A chartbook. Boston, MA: Reach Out and Read National Center.
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