Make Your Child A Lifelong Reader

As a teacher, one of my goals is to create life-time readers in my students.  I want to develop a love for reading.  In order to achieve this goal, I need help from the parents of my students too.

The best way a parent can help is to read to their child.  It is important to start early.  The more children are read to, the larger their vocabulary and background knowledge will be.  Children usually have a higher listening level (understand words when listening) than reading level (understand words when reading).  This is why it is important to start reading to your child early.  If children already know a word because they heard it before, it will make it easier for them to read it when it is time. 

When choosing books to read aloud, be sure to choose books that interest the child.  This will help them associate reading with pleasure.  A child is more likely to read on their own later, if they have good memories associated with reading.  Now this does not mean that if your child loves dinosaurs, you should only read dinosaur books to them.  You should still read other books to them.  This will help to expand their vocabulary and background knowledge.  Who knows, they may find something else they enjoy reading about too.

A great resource on this subject is a website, www.trelease-on-reading.com.  Jim Trelease is the author of the book, The Read-Aloud Handbook. There is a lot of research on this topic both on this website and in the book.  He also has suggestions on how to make reading aloud a great experience.

Happy reading!