I fed myself with books throughout my childhood. Literally. I couldn’t eat a meal without voraciously turning pages with every other bite. Books went everywhere with me; they were my portal into other universes.
I started thinking about this after reading a New York Times article that talked about the importance of reading to children in order to promote their own motivation to read as they mature. Similar to how early exposure to words can increase our vocabulary later on, early exposure to excessive reading develops the desire to continue the pastime as we grow up. I remember being read Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, multitudes of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s poems, and so many other authors and their works throughout my younger years. After I learned to read myself, I continued this reading practice with more advanced literature, reciting poems aloud that I’d memorized, for example. Until, of course, it became an obsession and I became an English major. I have no doubt my drive for reading was instilled from that act of being read to as a familiar activity, a ritual, maybe even a habit with my sisters and parents.
The article discusses the influence of reading aloud on the habits of childhood reading, particularly when there is an absence of reading aloud in the child’s life. Though, reflecting back to my childhood, I do think that (if I were given the choice between the two) being read to would have seemed a much more dull alternative to the phones, the laptops, or the video games that are so often handed off as entertainment for children, the article suggests that reading develops a level of literacy that these entertainments clearly lack. The article cites research that supports the fact that children who are read aloud to, even after they can read themselves, grow a deeper understanding of more complex words.
This idea translates into relevance even now as a college student. How many times have teachers encouraged me to read a poem aloud? So many! Though the article reports there is no research that reading aloud promotes greater literacy depth in adulthood, there is clearly a connection between reading aloud and a higher level of comprehension.
Read the article for a more in-depth and research supported discussion!