5 Reasons Your Child Should Read

We all know that reading is good for our kids, right? But do you know the extent to how much the child’s brain can change and learn from developing reading skills? From superior phonetic awareness to working cognitive memory skills, the ability to read fluently has so many benefits that it’s vastly important to encourage your kid to work through his or her reading list this summer.

In fact, here are five scientifically proven reasons why you should bring up a bookworm. Stay tuned for the next five in the following blog post this week!

1. Phonemic Awareness

 

By teaching rhymes, songs and short poems and playing simple word games, you can develop your child’s phonemic awareness. That’s the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the sounds of spoken language and to understand that words are made of sequences of phonemes, the smallest units of sound that make a difference in the meaning of words. Students with developed phonemic awareness skills can judge whether two words rhyme, for example, and are able to isolate and substitute the beginning, middle and ending sounds in a word.

 

2. Phonics

 

Play games like, “How many words can you make using the letters in ‘spaghetti’?” or practice the alphabet by pointing out letters in every day words. Phonics will help kids realize there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language).

 

3. Fluency

 

Read to your child, and help them follow along as they read. Or, turn things around and encourage your child to read aloud to you! This develops your child’s reading fluency, the ability to read accurately and quickly while simultaneously understanding what the words mean.

 

4. Vocabulary

 

How strong is your child’s vocabulary – the words that readers need to know to communicate effectively? Teach your child the meaning of important words, and keep a dictionary handy around the home. You can also teach your child how to find clues to figure out unknown words, based on the material’s context, base words and affixes.

 

5. Comprehension

The best way to enhance your child’s reading comprehension is to get your kids to read for fun. Are there any interesting books that they want to read on their own? Do they show interest in specific genres? Afterwards, try discussing the book together too. This way, your child will be able to derive meaning from the text and understand the deeper purpose of reading.