Books Are Great Nourishment For Young Minds

In today’s fast-paced electronic age where parents are finding less time to read, literacy experts maintain that reading books and/or magazines can make the difference between success and failure for school-age children.

“Kids who are exposed to books and reading at an early age are most successful in school,” says registered nurse, Susan Cooley, Ph.D., project director for Reach Out & Read Texas (http://www.reachoutandread.org) and assistant professor of pediatrics at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Reach Out & Read, better known as ROR, is a national, pediatric-based, early literacy promotion program designed to initiate discussions with parents about the importance of reading aloud to young children. ROR consists of 1,500 reading clinics nationwide where pediatricians actually give parents prescriptions for developmentally appropriate reading materials for their children.

“Learning to read is a developmental process and parents can nurture literacy development in children. ROR teaches parents that picking up a book or magazine and exposing their children to reading during the first three years of life will prepare their children for school,” Cooley says.

ROR was one of the programs highlighted this summer at the White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development, which, Cooley explains, is an outgrowth of first lady Laura Bush’s “Early Childhood Initiative for Texas.”

Cooley says evidence presented at the White House summit confirms that children, who start school behind, stay behind. “This leads to low self-esteem, school failure, student dropouts, and other social ills,” she says. Research also notes that poor children are at a greater risk than their counterparts for entering kindergarten unprepared. As a result of these and other findings, a nationwide initiative called “Ready to Read, Ready to Learn” was launched during the two-day summit. This new program aims to prepare all children for school, regardless of income.

While ROR, the new national initiative, and other reading programs are effective, Cooley offers simple tips that all parents can use to make reading fun:

  • Always go to your children first. Allocate parent/child time immediately upon returning home from a busy day.
  • Don’t answer the telephone during time with your children. If your loved ones are already in the house, then the call cannot be an emergency.
  • Reduce all distractions. Make time with children sacred.
  • Understand that children, in practice, don’t always sit quietly and listen like they do on television. If they walk away during reading time, then use your voice or read to their favorite toy to engage them.
  • Use an egg timer to help children gauge their reading time.
  • Create ways to show that reading is fun and a part of daily interaction. For example, read the packaging for children’s favorite foods or walk around the house and identify certain household items.
  • Continually talk to your children and attentively listen to their responses.
  • Choose your favorite stories to heighten enthusiasm when reading to children.
  • Ensure that at least 10-15 minutes a day are devoted to reading.

Dolores Perin, associate professor in psychology and education at the Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, agrees that active participation from parents increases the chances of having well-prepared children.

“The best way for parents to help their children become literate is to do task-related things. Children and adults become encouraged to read when it’s done in a context that’s useful for them. For example, a lot of the children we work with are from a low socioeconomic group and their parents aren’t well educated. Anyway, these parents see education as a functional tool to attain ‘The American Dream,’ so they eagerly help their children study,” Perin explains.

She says, “parents must read to their children, even if they do not read well, because children will then view reading as fun time with their parent(s). Oftentimes, reading aloud to children also helps adults sharpen their reading skills without being stigmatized.”

Perin, who is also the coordinator for Columbia University’s Reading Specialist Program, says parents can create reading incentives by taking their children to the library, to a reading clinic, or to other such community-based programs.

“Parents are children’s first teachers and sometimes parents need help with this task. That’s where many schools and community-based programs come in. They usually have the resources to help parents help their children,” Perin says.

Children’s librarian, Jennifer Wells, at the Cobb County Library – Vinings Branch in Georgia, says that multimedia such as felt boards; songs, jumping jacks and games facilitate interaction between parent and child during reading events at the library.

“We lead by example here. The parents we deal with already read to their children, but most are looking for fun ways to engage their children,” Wells says. “We provide song sheets, finger-play sheets and other information that we give parents to reinforce at home what they learn while they are here.”

She says most parents generally ask what types of books are age-appropriate for their children. Wells says books about sharing and sibling rivalry are most popular.

The International Reading Association (http://www.reading.org), based in Newark, Delaware, produces pamphlets and other materials promoting family literacy. One such pamphlet says, “research tells us that young children who participate in conversations, are read to regularly, have books in their home, and develop print awareness have a head start on reading and literacy skills when they enter school.”

According to literacy professionals, the bottom line is that reading remains fundamental and parents must play an active role if they want their children to succeed.

 

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This story was originally published by Parenthood.com.