Ever since 18 month old child prodigy Elizabeth Barrett read flashcards on The Today Show, parents have been asking me what they can do to help their children acquire similar skills and learn to love reading.

Experts say that most children learn to read between the ages of six and seven and it is not beneficial to try to push a child to read before then. In fact, recent research shows that, quite to the contrary, it can actually do more harm than good. One of the most damaging things you can do to affect your child’s relationship with books is to create pressure for her to read which can foster a negative association between your child and reading making her less likely to want to read.

There is, however, one simple and inexpensive thing you can do which will guarantee a positive difference in your child’s reading success and that is reading aloud to her, which parents can even start while their child is in utero. Not only does this help to create a healthy relationship between your child and reading, it is also an excellent bonding ritual which has other beneficial elements for both parent and child.

There are many benefits to reading to your child, most notably the positive association between reading and pleasure that can last a lifetime. The other positive effects apparent in children who are read to are:

• increased vocabulary
• greater acquisition of knowledge
• greater academic achievements
• pursuit and completion of higher levels of schooling
• better performance on comprehension tests
• better attitudes about reading
• better scores on tests of reading, writing, and speaking

The single best predictor of language acquisition is the number and quality of words a child is exposed to each day. Reading has the added benefit of exposing children to “rare words,” complex sentences, literary devices like alliteration and rhyming, descriptive language, and original synonyms and story conventions (i.e. “in a land far, far away”). According to Betty Bardige and Marilyn Segal, authors of Building Literacy with Love, “children who have lots of experience with books are likely to develop richer vocabularies and deeper understanding of the meanings, sounds, and uses of words than those with less literary experience. They are also likely to be familiar with the conventions of language and story form that they will encounter when they begin to read for themselves.”

Reading makes a world of difference in achievement. An international study of 150,000 fourth graders found that students who were read to at home often scored 30 points higher than those who were only read to “sometimes.” In a study done by the US Department of Education researchers found that children who were read to at least three times per week had significantly greater phonemic awareness when they entered kindergarten than children who were read to less often, and were also twice as likely to score in the top 25 percent in reading.

It Starts at Home

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