Part 1: Birth Through Preschool Reading
Skills
How can you help your preschooler
become a reader?
One major way that you can help
young learners become readers is simply by talking with
them.
I recall a friend of mine who is a mother of 7 (at last
count!) who had the practice of talking to her young children
in very adult sentences (and that was when her children would
not even be old enough to talk yet).
And sure enough, when they got
old enough to be able to speak, the kind of sentences that
would pop out of their mouths would amaze you. I used to enjoy
just sitting there and listening to them talk.
Additionally, of our group of
friends her children was the first to begin reading.
Coincidence? I think not.
In a study that was conducted, more than 40 families were
observed over several years to study how, and how often,
parents talk with children.
Researchers found a tremendous variety in the amount of words
spoken to children in the first three years of life and in the
quality of feedback they received.
These verbal interactions with
adults are major predictors of how successful children will be
in school.
While family income was highly related to levels of children’s
language exposure, the relationship was not absolute. Some
middle-income families behaved more like high-income families,
preparing their children for higher achievement through
vocabulary development and other language skills.
Other middle-income families
behaved more like low-income families, with a paucity of
language exposure for children.
An average child growing up in a low-income family receiving
welfare hears one-half to one-third as many spoken words as
children in more affluent households.
At these rates the low-income
child would know about 3,000 words by age 6, while the child
of the high-income family would have a vocabulary of 20,000
words.
To provide the low-income child
with weekly language experience equal to that of a child from
a middle-income family, it would require 41 hours per week of
out-of-home word exposure as rich as those heard by the most
affluent children.
Number of words heard at home
per hour by 1 and 2-year-olds learning to talk:
low-income child - 620
middle-income child - 1,250
high-income child - 2,150
Number of words heard by age 3:
low-income child - 10 million
middle-income child - 20 million
high-income child - 30 million
Source: Hart & Risley. Meaningful Differences
in the Everyday Experiences of Young Children
Other proven strategies which
can help preschoolers become readers are:
1) Use sounds, songs, gestures
and words that rhyme to help your baby learn about language
and its many uses. Babies need to hear language from a human
being. Television is just noise to a baby.
2) Take children’s books and
writing materials with you whenever you leave home. This gives
your child fun activities to entertain and occupy him while
traveling and going to the doctor’s office or other
appointments.
3) Create a quiet, special place
in your home for your child to read, write and draw. Keep
books and other reading materials where your child can easily
reach them.
4) Limit the amount and type of
television you and your child watch. Better yet, turn off the
television and spend more time cuddling and reading books with
your child. The time and attention you give your child has
many benefits beyond helping him be ready for success in
school.
5) Read to your baby every day starting at six months of age.
Reading and playing with books is a wonderful way to spend
special time with your child. Hearing words over and over helps her
become familiar with them.
6) Reading to your baby is one of
the best ways to help her learn.
7) Talk to your infant and
toddler to help him learn to speak and understand the meaning
of words. Point to objects that are near and describe them as
you play and do daily activities together. Having a large
vocabulary gives a child a great start when he enters school.
|
