The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go. — Dr Seuss, from I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
THE JOY of immersing oneself in a book is perhaps only surpassed by that of reading out loud, particularly to a child. The articulation of the words gives them a life and reality they simply don’t have on the page; the child’s willing suspension of disbelief is a wonderful glimpse at innocence and imagination unbounded. That is, of course, unless it’s the 43rd reading, from beginning to end, word-perfect, of that one particularly inane favourite tale ...
Survey findings earlier this week that 71 per cent of Irish mothers read regularly to their children (at least every second day), and that a quarter do so daily, are most heartening. Although the poll was limited to 500 mothers of children under 10 (conducted by Empathy Research for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies), the evidence mirrors international trends. In the US, while only 78 per cent of families read to their pre-kindergarten children three or more times a week in 1993, this increased to 86 per cent by 2005, according to the National Centre for Education Statistics.
In Queensland the state government has responded just this week to a report that only 61 per cent of local childen were being read to regularly – compared to a 71 per cent Australian average – by launching a major marketing drive aimed at parents to raise the figure. “Simply put, 20 minutes a day will make a difference and make potentially a world of difference to a child’s academic outcomes,” prime minister Anna Bligh insists.
The British study, Effective Provision of Pre-Scoool Education, also confirms international experience that parental involvement in home schooling and specifically the frequency with which parents read to children is reflected directly in later higher assessments for prereading skills, language/vocabularly and early number attainment. Reading to children nurtures the imagination, opening the child's understanding of a wider world and of infinite possibilities beyond their immediate horizon. Just as important is the reassuring and bonding such reading promotes even before the child understands the words. The Irish survey also found that two-thirds of Irish mothers begin reading to their child before they are a year old, a quarter, from birth.
The reading of books to children is more important as they develop into an online world.