Early Childhood parents learned some tips on how to read with the children and how to raise a lifelong reader from an early age during a Parent Talk presented by our EAL teacher, Glenn Byatt last week.

To begin with, Glenn stressed the importance of reading regularly with your child:

•       Studies show that early reading with your kids helps them learn to speak, interact, bond with you and read early themselves.

•       Reading to children at age 4-5 every day has a significant positive effect on their reading skills and cognitive skills (i.e., language and literacy, numeracy and cognition) later in life.

•       These differences in reading and cognitive skills are often a direct result of how frequently they have been read to prior to starting elementary school.

Recent research by The Ohio State University indicates the difference between reading to kids at home and not can be more than a million words by age 5.

“If you haven’t started reading with your children, start right now!” Glenn noted and shared some tips on developing this habit.

•       At 9-18 months, you can start asking questions. “Where is the moon?”

•       At 18-24 months, children might label objects with sounds or words.

•       At 24-36 months, you can ask more difficult questions. “How do you think the boy is feeling?” “What will happen next?”

•       At 3 years old, your child may be able to tell you the story based on what's happening in the pictures.

“The most important thing is reading the books children enjoy. The type of the book doesn’t matter if they enjoy reading,” he said. “My 3-year-old son loves reading Safe Driving- a book about how expats acquire driving license in China. He is into cars and gets to know the meaning of many traffic signs from it.”

Regarding to how to read a book, he cited an approach from our Guided Reading classes -- “Reading is what happens before, during and after”.

•       Before:

What can you see?

Why did you choose this book?

What do you think will happen?

•       During:

Where is the moon?

How do they feel?

What will happen next?

•       After:

What happened in this story?

Did you enjoy this book? Why or why not?

He concluded his talk by sharing how to raise a lifelong reader:

•       Read often and regularly.

•       Let your children help select the books.

•       Repeat favorite stories.

•       Interact with your children when reading.

•       Reading is for the whole family!

•       Model the importance of reading in your own life.

•       Read about… reading!

•       Keep it fun!