Start ‘Em Reading Young
This blog contributed by BookGive volunteer, author Phyllis Lundy.
One of my earliest memories is from a Sunday morning in church. The choir sang as they walked past me up the aisle to the choir loft. I was transfixed. Tugging excitedly on my mother’s skirt, I asked, “When can I sing in the choir?” Her answer: “I suppose you’ll have to learn to read first.” According to family lore, I set about learning to read right away, and thus started my life-long love of reading (and singing).
If you are an avid reader, perhaps you have a memory of what got you started on the reading pathway. So many kinds of experiences can spark a child’s interest in reading: arranging magnetic letters on the refrigerator, curiosity about a backyard animal or love for a pet that leads to a desire to learn more, reciting nursery rhymes or singing the alphabet, or following along with a grown-up’s finger to mark the words as they are read aloud.
Studies show that reading aloud with a loving caregiver is the most important activity when it comes to preparing a child to read on their own. Holding your baby or young child while you are reading to them associates reading with an enjoyably cozy experience. Using different voices for different characters, singing some parts and making expressive noises adds an interesting and fun auditory component. Baby’s first books often have tactile parts that encourage touching and are made out of sturdy material which encourages a physical relationship – they can be tasted, chewed on, banged on, dropped and thrown – what fun!
Early engagement with reading sets the stage for school readiness, stimulates language skills and thinking skills, enhances memory, and helps build vocabulary. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics found that kids who are read to every day are exposed to around 78,000 words each year – over five years, that adds up to 1.4 million words!
Preschoolers enjoy alphabet books, rhyming books and picture books. What are your kid’s interests? What are they asking questions about? What do they pay attention to? Kids are drawn to both fiction and non-fiction books on topics they are already interested in. That’s why there are so many books featuring dinosaurs!
What if your kids are older but have never gravitated toward reading? What if during your child’s young years, you weren’t able to spend much time reading with them? The good news is, it’s never too late! Many adolescents enjoy a read-aloud.
Lots of kids – even those who were read to in early childhood – don’t show much of an interest in reading until later on in their pre-teen or teen years. Perhaps they watch a movie like Bladerunner or The Adjustment Bureau and become interested in reading the books of Philip K. Dick, the author on whose books those movies were based. For some, comic books or graphic novels becomes their favorite reading material.
Having a reader-friendly home with lots of reading material to choose from can help kids find their way to reading as an enjoyable pastime. BookGive knows that having books at home is an indicator of student success and indeed of a high quality of life. We exist to make books available in every household.
To that end, we are sponsoring a holiday book give-away on November 29, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at our service station on Lowell Blvd. You can find details here: https://bookgivedenver.org/event/holiday-book-give-away/.
We hope you will stop by, browse through our extensive collection of donated books and take home a big assortment for yourselves and all your family members. Especially during a year when we are spending more time at home out of necessity, what could be better than a holiday spent reading together with your loved ones?
