A few weeks ago, I had the
opportunity to play Erma the Bookworma for our weekly visit to Crisis
Assistance Ministry. The first bookworm we met was a little boy named Thomas
who was sitting with his grandmother. Thomas seemed very shy at first and was a
very unique bookworm. His grandmother explained to us that he had speech
difficulties. Since she spent the most time with Thomas during the week, she
talked to us about all of the things she did with him to help improve his
speech—Little did she know that reading books out loud with Thomas is a key
factor in helping with speech difficulties.
While reading is typically
viewed as an individual and silent activity, reading out loud really does have
a great impact on how our brains learn and comprehend. When you are reading
hard pieces of text, sometimes slowly reading it out loud helps your brain to
process and sort the information better. Even when you are writing, it is
important to read your work out loud because that helps your brain pick up on
any overlooked mistakes.
Reading out loud with young
children is especially important in molding their brains and critical-thinking
skills. More importantly, however, reading out loud can help enhance and
develop speech. According to Reading Rockets, a national multimedia literacy
initiative, “Reading to your child and having him/her name objects in a book or
read aloud to you can strengthen his/her speech and language skills.” Reading
Rockets also offers a number of tips for parents of children with speech and language
problems, such as talking about the
pictures in books and asking questions about the stories.
Figure 1:
mysightwords.net/benefits-reading-out-loud-child
Instilling the importance of
reading out loud at a young age doesn’t just improve speech skills. It can also
help develop skills in many different areas that are important when it comes to
having a bright and prosperous future. Skills such as communication, listening,
problem-solving, comprehension, inference-making, and literacy are all results
of reading out loud. In fact, Speech Buddies, an
organization dedicated to improving the lives of children with speech and
language challenges through speech therapy, states that “Visual awareness of
letters and sentences, auditory awareness of phonetics and the spoken language,
processing skills for language, and skills for transferring what is read into
speaking are all part of the literacy equation.”
Speech Buddies offers tips for
reading aloud success. These tips are designed to promote reading out loud to
enhance speech and literacy skills that are connected to other skills such as
communication and critical-reasoning. The first tip is to start small and read below level. It is important not to overwhelm
young readers with books that are complicated when you are first introducing
them to the idea of reading out loud. Next, don’t interrupt the reading to correct. It is imperative that you
don’t interfere with the flow of reading out loud, but make sure to point out
corrections at the end. Lastly, have
your child read out loud to something—not someone. This is important
because it will reduce the stress of reading to a person, and it will give the
child more opportunities to read aloud on their own.
Figure 2:
mzteachuh.blogspot.com
Don’t underestimate the power
of reading out loud with your children! Remember to always be a source of
encouragement for your children, and practice reading out loud for at least 10
minutes every night.
Sources:
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