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| |    Reading Aloud with School-Age Children by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. reviewed by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P. Reading aloud doesn't have to end just because your child gets older. If it's something you both love to do together, there are many good reasons to continue: Most important, reading together is fun. Sharing pleasant and interesting experiences makes your relationship stronger. Having a reservoir of positive feelings helps you and your child cope with disagreements and other tensions that are an inevitable part of growing up. Reading aloud keeps interest high. Between first grade and third or fourth grade, children are still developing their basic reading skills. During that time, most of the books that are simple enough for them to read are too simple for them to find interesting. Reading can begin to seem like a dull chore. But by reading aloud together, you can help your child enjoy more difficult books that are likely to keep her engaged until her reading ability catches up with her interests. Reading aloud is especially important if your child is having difficulty learning to read. Some children find reading easy. Others, equally bright, find it quite challenging at first, often because their brains are taking longer to reach the level of maturation needed for reading. In time--most often by the end of third grade--they catch up and do just fine. But until that happens, reading is likely to be difficult, and many children decide that it is simply not for them. If they have parents who read to them, however, they're much more likely to stay open to the pleasures that books can bring to their lives. They'll stick with it, work hard, and eventually gain the skills they need for independent reading. Reading aloud builds listening skills. It's a good idea to stop from time to time and talk about the story with your child. First of all, you want to make sure that she really is understanding what is going on. If not, you can help explain the plot, a character's motivations, a hard word, or whatever else is puzzling her. Also, when you ask open-ended questions, you strengthen your child's ability to think about what she hears and make sense of it. Ask why a particular character did what he did, or ask your child what she thinks is going to happen next. Reading aloud builds vocabulary. There are words in books that you almost never hear in everyday speech. One of the best children's books of all time, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, is written mostly in plain English. But even here, you find interesting words like "injustice," "terrific," and "humble." Don't be surprised if you hear your child using some of these "book words" when she speaks. Many children love to play with new words and in the process, they are building skills that will help them throughout their school careers. Stories are the building blocks of imagination. Children take bits and pieces of the stories they hear and use them in their own make-believe. So, if you want your child to have a rich imagination, let her hear lots of good stories. The same thing happens when children watch television. They build the TV stories into their play. But because TV images are so much more vivid than the word images in books, children don't need to use their imagination as much. Consequently, during playtime, they often simply copy what they saw on TV, rather than creating their own stories. Books help teach character. Many educators and psychologists believe that books are one of the best ways children learn about right and wrong. As they see how a character reacts in a given situation-how they treat their friends, for example, or what they do when they want something that isn't theirs-they get a clearer picture of what's admirable behavior and what's not. The messages in the books can be a compelling and enjoyable way to reinforce the values you're trying to teach your child at home. Click here to join the discussion on Reading and Your Child
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