I have never been a “morning person”. I don’t like waking up early, and I do best when I take my time in the morning. When my mom would wake me up to get ready for school (since I often chose not to listen to my alarm clock), it would take a lot of convincing for me to get out of bed. As I reflect on my early years, I realized one thing that helped me feel ready to greet the day: My mom reading out loud to me in the morning. For several years while I was in elementary school, she would sit on or near my bed while she read a few chapters of a book while I groggily emerged from my slumber.
A few years ago I learned that this was actually a very frustrating time for my mother, and she was at her wits end trying to help me get ready on time in the mornings. It is interesting to me that such a difficult time from her perspective has become one of my favorite childhood memories. I don’t remember any negative attitude on her part, only her voice calling me out of my sleepy state and me eventually begging her to read another chapter once I was conscious of the story. This simple 20-30 minutes helped foster a sweet relationship between my mother and I and encouraged me to get into reading.
Growing up, I didn’t love to read. I, like many children, would rather spend my time watching a show or movie, or listening to music than reading a book. I enjoyed reading if I found a genre or topic I liked, but I didn’t have a lot of patience for something that took me longer than others. I got really nervous for fluency tests in school and was worried about tripping over my words, so reading was not an enjoyable experience at first. After my mom started reading books to me as a way to connect rather than to test my abilities, I began to develop a new relationship with reading that helped cultivate a future love of the activity.
Benefits of Reading Aloud to Children
There’s a reason early literacy is so important! Not only do children need to learn to read to better understand the world around them, but they learn other valuable life lessons through this simple practice. Reading or listening to books helps children build their vocabulary, improve comprehension, develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, increase their attention span and focus, and strengthen their fluency.
Reading also introduces children to new perspectives through what Reading Rockets call “windows and mirrors”. Books can be windows, allowing children to see into different cultures and experiences of others they may not otherwise know about and learn more about the world around them. Books can also be mirrors, reflecting a reader’s own life experience and showing characters that relate to them. This concept of windows and mirrors promotes social and emotional development in children as they learn more about emotions, problem-solving skills, and building empathy for others.
Books can be a great tool to help children navigate new situations like potty training, making friends at school, moving, understanding a new diagnosis for the child or someone they know, discussing social justice issues, or even getting used to a new routine. Reading books about these scenarios can help children realize they aren’t alone in their experience and serve as a conversation starter for these topics and more.
Reading with your children at any age can help strengthen your parent-child bond, just as it did for me and my mom. This shared activity can create opportunities for conversation with your child, build common ground, create shared experiences, and foster positive experiences surrounding books. While I don’t have children of my own, I have seen the power of early literacy working in the lives of little ones around me. I find simple joy in talking with my nieces and nephews about what books they are reading and have even started reading some of them myself!
Ideas to Get Started
Here are some other fun ways to introduce reading aloud to your child(ren):
- Reading books together as part of the bedtime routine
- Listening to a book on CD or digital audiobook
- Using a Yoto player with story cards – This is a fun screen free audio player option for audiobooks on the go or at home. Some libraries have Yoto players and/or cards you can check out for a few weeks at a time.
- Reading a chapter book as a family
- Engaging in age-appropriate conversations while you read – See our previous blog post for tips on how to get the most out of your time reading together.
- Listening to stories in the car or on the go – You can find several playlists on Spotify, YouTube, or other podcast networks filled with children’s stories to listen to anywhere you need to go. I found some for toddlers as well as ages 3-8.
- Attending storytime at your local library
Reading aloud with your child can take many forms and will look different depending on your child’s age and reading level. No matter the method you choose, reading aloud has so many benefits. You’ve got this!
