THE IMPORTANCE OF READING

Reading books with your child is one of the best things you can do to set them up for success in life. Reading out loud helps build a connection with your child and develops a lifelong love of reading, ideas and learning.  Researchers have also found a positive association between parents reading to their child every day and the child’s language skills, literacy and cognitive development later in life (e.g., Kloosterman et al., 2011, Mol and Bus, 2011, Raikes et al., 2006). Books with static pictures help children’s brains learn to focus, visualise and imagine unlike  videos that have moving pictures which does the work for them.  Books can also help your child understand the world including scary events, and the strong emotions that come with them. Children learn more complex language from the vocabulary in books than from daily conversation. Research from the  Journal of Developmental & Behavioural Paediatrics  has found children who are read to every day will have  300,000 more words than their peers who haven’t been read to by the time they start school. If parents read 5 books a day the child has 1.4 million more words by the age of 5. Children who are read to every day have a huge advantage over their peers. 

Tips for making book reading successful:

• Start young- read books to babies to develop attention, and understand how a book works as well as learning to turn pages  and developing  fine motor skills
• Sit face to face with your child so they can see your mouth as well as the book
• Break the rules- You don’t have to read from start to finish and you don’t have to read every word!  
• Chose books with interesting illustrations- stop and point to things, talk about the pictures using describing words
• Books with repetition and rhyme are great for developing phonological awareness (awareness of the sounds that make up words- important for reading and spelling later on)
• Read Books with a narrative- beginning middle and resolution
• Keep it fun- read books that you enjoy. You child will pick up on your enthusiasm and want to read it too.

The below books I recommend reading as they have a a narrative structure as well as rhyme, repetition, onomatopoeia and opportunities to predict and anticipate what comes next to keep the suspense and fun.

Chicken Divas- Lucinda Gifford
Mr McGee goes to sea- Pamela Allen
Possum in the house, – Melanie Carter
Hairy McLairy- Lynley Dodd
The Gruffalo – Julia Donaldson
We’re going on a bear hunt- Michael Rosen
Cat in the Hat- Dr Suess

For more book suggestions SPA book of the year awards- Each nominated book is judged based on its appeal to children, interactive quality and ability to assist speech pathologists and parents in facilitating the development of communication and literacy in children.

​Reference: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/whats_on/Book_of_the_Year/SPAweb/What_s_On/Book_of_the_Year/Book_of_the_Year.aspx?hkey=6d7d21b1-0cd6-4b86-91e3-11884f031a02

Written by Calla Dolton 
BCi, BEd(sec), MSpPath Certified Practising Speech Pathologist