Shared Reading and Parental Vocabulary as Preliteracy Tools

In my last blog I mentioned how recent scientific findings can
be used to increase awareness of just how early a child’s brain begins to learn.
Amazingly, babies begin to learn even before birth. The earlier a parent starts
to share reading with their child, the better. And since literacy requires a
foundation, it’s helpful for parents to know what to do to help their child get
off to the best possible start as a reader, well before entering school.

Shared reading—sometimes called lap reading—is the single most
important thing parents can do for their children to help them learn to love
reading and to become the best readers possible. Shared reading is an
interactive reading experience that occurs when a child listens to, joins in,
or shares the reading of a book or other text while guided and supported by an
adult. The adult reads with fluency and expression, modeling the skills of a
proficient reader.

Picture books are two to three times as likely as parent-child conversations to include a word that isn’t among the five thousand most common English words.

From the example set by the adult reader during shared
reading, children begin to learn about the mechanics of reading. For instance,
children may learn that in English, we read from left to right, that letters
make up words, that words make up sentences, that letters have sounds, that
punctuation influences pausing and expression while reading, and much more. In
addition to learning from the reader’s example, children also learn from
exposure to the content of the books that are read, which increases their
vocabulary, their empathy for others, and their knowledge of the world.

According to a meta-study conducted by the LENA Foundation—a
non-profit group that studies the effect of language on children’s brain
development—the amount and quality of shared reading time a young child
experiences early in life predicts the level of reading competence that child
will achieve by third grade. Therefore, the more often you read to your young
child at home, the better he will read on his own by third grade.

The facts on how shared reading in early childhood influences
a child’s reading abilities are unequivocal. Simply put, children acquire
language in two ways: by being spoken to and through shared reading. Both are
important, but shared reading is the more powerful of the two.

[image error]Frequent conversations are one way a child is exposed to language and new words. Multiple daily conversations are crucial, and parents are especially encouraged to take advantage of mealtimes together as opportunities for conversation.

Dominic Massaro, a professor emeritus in psychology at the
University of California, Santa Cruz, published a notable study in 2015 in The
Journal of Literacy Research. He said that although parents can build their
children’s vocabularies (thereby impacting later reading skills) by talking to
them, reading to them is much more effective. “Reading aloud is the best way to
help children develop word mastery and grammatical understanding, which form
the basis for learning how to read,” states Massaro, whose field is language
acquisition and literacy. He found that picture books are two to three times as
likely as parent-child conversations to include a word that isn’t among the five
thousand most common English words.

Massaro’s research has shown that the more diverse the list of
words a child is exposed to as a reader, the better that child’s reading skills
will become—and that’s a cumulative benefit, not something short-term. “Given
the fact that word mastery in adulthood is correlated with early acquisition of
words, shared picture book reading offers a potentially powerful strategy to
prepare children for competent literacy skills,” Massaro states.

[image error]

This is an important statement to understand: the more words a
child learns at an early age, the better their word mastery will be in
adulthood. Massaro is not saying that adults can’t learn new words, but rather
that the more words young children learn, the better a foundation they will
have for all aspects of literacy, and that foundation will serve them
throughout their entire lives.

[image error]

Whatever your child’s age, it’s never too late to begin
reading together. If you’d like to learn more about preliteracy and how you can
build a strong preliteracy foundation for your child, these studies and many
more are discussed at length in my new book, Raising a Child With Dyslexia:
What Every Parent Needs to Know, available in October, 2019 on Amazon.com
and other online retailers.

If you will be attending the Central Texas Dyslexia Conference in Austin on October 19, 2019, you can preorder a signed copy HERE and pick it up at the conference.

Cardboard Box Adventures Picture Books are great
for shared reading and can help parents establish a strong preliteracy
foundation for their children. Check out the new CBA
Catalog for a full list of award-winning picture books,
chapter books, and resources for parents and educators.